Changpeng Zhao, CEO of Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, said that while several DeFi ventures display signs of being in a bubble, decentralized finance is here to remain.
In an interview with Russia’s news agency RBC on Nov. 17, Zhao argued that many DeFi projects are already in a bubble but that does not mean DeFi can’t continue to succeed.
A Future for DeFi Beyond the Bubble
Although he sees a future for DeFi, Zhao has noted roadblocks to the mass appeal of the industry. He asserted in August that until decentralized exchanges become more user-friendly, centralized exchanges will remain popular.
Zhao went on to say the DeFi industry has a lot of growth potential, noting that in the midst of an ongoing Bitcoin (BTC) rally, DeFi still remains popular. The executive also stressed that in 2017, initial coin offerings, or ICOs, were referred to as a bubble, but a number of ICO-born projects are still doing great, including Binance. He went on to note:
Companies produce fresh tokens and issue them as a reward. This story is not a long-running one. But I believe that DeFi is here to stay. DeFi is still popular even now with Bitcoin’s popularity rising again. We believe that there is a great deal of growth potential in DeFi.
Zhao said, however that, despite the industry providing a number of incentives through DeFi yield farming and DeFi liquidity, some DeFi projects “may not last too long.”
Zhao also claimed that the best form of money are cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin, calling it the “money of freedom for millions of people around the world.” The CEO predicted that the crypto market could grow by as much as 100,000% as digital assets are supposed to be more widely adopted than fiat.
A History of Binance
In 2005, CEO Changpeng Zhao had previously developed Fusion Systems in Shanghai; the business installed high-frequency broker trading systems.
As the third member of the cryptocurrency wallet squad, he joined Blockchain.info in 2013. He also operated for less than a year at OKCoin as CTO, a forum for spot trading between fiat and digital assets.
The business was established in China, but in anticipation of the Chinese government’s ban on cryptocurrency trading in September 2017, it relocated its servers and headquarters from China and Japan. By March 2018, the group had set up offices in Taiwan.
It was the biggest crypto-currency exchange with a market capitalization of $1.3 billion as of January 2018.
In March 2018, after tighter legislation in Japan and China, Binance declared its plans to open an office in Malta. Binance concluded a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Bermuda government in April 2018.
A related memorandum with the Malta Stock Exchange to establish a forum for exchanging security tokens was signed months later.
Binance, which is the world’s highest-volume crypto exchange, stopped servicing US traders over regulatory risks in Sept 2019.
