CZ, Binance CEO, discusses Ponzi schemes and DeFi. Also, how Binance selects coins to list in a New Year’s video.
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To round out 2021, Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao (or “CZ”) responded to a series curated tweets from the Binance community.
A Chinese-Canadian business executive stated that Binance, a centralized exchange like Binance, would still be relevant in 2022 and beyond.
CZ responded to a loaded tweet on centralized finance’s dark side and the future of decentralized financing by saying, “Today we still need the central systems to integrate with traditional financial industry so we can bring money into and out crypto.”
He retracted his sentiment by referring to cryptocurrency market as still a young industry that is susceptible to scammers, hackers, Ponzi schemes, and fraudsters.
The Squid Game token (SQUID) was a legendary 2021 rug pull. It saw a 45,000% gain prior to being discarded. Keen readers will be familiar with it. Binance began an inquiry into the token in November to track down funds related to the pump-and-dump.
CZ was unafraid to answer any questions about favoritism towards certain blockchain projects or coins that, according one Twitter user, were “totally fake.”
“Binance lists about six or seven hundred coins out of probably 6 million coins. So only one in 10,000 coins that’s ever created gets listed on Binance. That’s about 0.01%. It is a very small number.”
While coin selection is a moot issue, tighter management of centralized exchanges (CEX) has been rife during 2021. No strangers to compliance, Binance Turkey was recently fined 8 million liras for non-compliance against money laundering, while CEXs as a whole came under pressure in August this year.
In terms of the group’s growth, Binance now numbers over 90 million users worldwide, dwarfing its team of “a couple of thousand Binancians.” 2021 goes out with a bang, as regulatory approvals in Canada and Bahrain will bring Binance services to more crypto enthusiasts across the globe.
CZ, meanwhile, will continue to hodl his two favorite coins, Binance Coin (BNB) and Bitcoin (BTC). Reaching 36 on Cointelegraph’s Top 100 Notable People in Blockchain in 2021, he wishes us all a Happy New Year and said he would “continue to work on Binance users’ feedback in 2022.”
