Navigating the winds of change in Crypto

[Music] thank you very very much for being here pleasure thank you for having me and congrats uh Team blue we're hiring so we will start with the elephant in the room the justice department in the US settled with binance last week closing out a yearlong investigation that found anti-money laundering regulations were not followed by the company Shang Pang jaao CZ is out as CEO facing jail time in a big fine Richard Tang a longtime regulator in Singapore and right here in Abu Dhabi is in as CEO it's been a really really big week and I just want to know how are all of you doing at binance yeah it's been a very interesting week to say the least but uh we're doing fine we're taking things day by day um the resolution with the US regulator is a great thing not only for binance but for the entire industry as you know we're the leaders in the space so it falls on our shoulder to drive the industry forward and make no mistake about it the future of crypto is a regulated one and so as the most regulated entity in the world we have 18 licenses um it's on us to you know change the way things are done and it's part of the maturation cycle of the industry it's unfortunate that uh you know we had to see CZ go you know we wish him all the best and we appreciate all the work he's done to Pioneer the industry from its early days uh but given the direction we need to head now I have absolute confidence and very much looking forward to working under Richard Tang to drive the next chapter here given his extensive regulatory experience right he was adm's Chief regulator for six years prior to coming to binance a couple years ago um CZ is out but he retains majority share you do just said a fond farewell that is what I'm reading you saying I mean he will remain in a consultation capacity as part of the settlement agreement uh but yeah for all intents and purposes operationally uh we'll have a independent board and Richard dang at the helm uh to drive the business business for it you joined binance about 18 months ago and prior to joining binance you were a Serial entrepreneur you founded companies working on ghost kitchens deliveries Mobility your last job was at Amazon no one was making you go crypto why did you go crypto why did you go binance what is what's this journey about interesting question so you know as an entrepreneur you're always Mission driven right you have to you know in order to endure all the grueling hours and sacrifices you have to make you have to be driven by Passion and a belief in something greater right it's not just Financial uh objectives and so you know for me with with with web 3 I fully bought into the mission of what it was meant to do right it brings with it the freedom of money and financial inclusion in a world where today 25% of the population Still Remains unbanked right and then the essence of the web 3 Model is to democratize democratize ownership web to democratize information with web 3 the creators in the space right they are the ones who will ACR the value and who will control the network going forward as opposed to centralized entities so that essence of the web3 model was so fascinating because it meant that so many Industries can be disrupted new models can be created and that's very exciting and then for me if you you know think about it historically as someone who grew up in the Middle East we are traditionally importers of in today for the very first time with uee leading the pack we are actually at the Forefront of this technological Revolution and we are exporting technological innovation globally and that to me is super exciting so binance was a was a no-brainer you know it was a big entity but it was still a startup at heart UAE as you said it's establishing itself as a hub Dubai is regulated bance you can trade in Dubai would binance ever choose the UAE as a global headquarters I mean by de facto we kind of already are amongst other places as well so you know U is very core to binance strategic objectives not just from a middle eastern lens but from a Global Perspective as well because you have to also understand you know the UAE um chartered regulations in in this space when there was no blueprint available so without regulations there is no Mass adoption so this is a great precedent for the rest of the world to follow and more importantly it's also draw on a lot of talent to build and that's the mission here is to continue to build to get more use cases more utilities so you can get the next billion users to come on chain so the ui's got it all it's got the regulations it's got the vision and it's got the people to make it happen I want to talk to a little bit more about your remit you oversee Middle East Africa south Asia which you joked before is you guys made you made it up that's that's a swath of the map that you named yourself masasa masasa okay um we'll move on from that um what you're so you're regulated in Bahrain you're regulated in Dubai freedom to operate there but elsewhere not yet so what are you ey you just said the blueprint in the UAE exists it's great where are you thinking you can bring the blueprint next yeah so we have 18 licenses and you that's the largest in the world today we have the most licenses so it's not just the Middle East U and bahin are just one examples but there's more in Europe and other markets in Asia but in terms of your remit excuse me in terms of your remit and what you're looking at are you eyeing opportunities where El in this region are you looking to develop opportunity yeah so it's an evolving landscape it's important to take a step back and understand that you know in terms of adoption we are today where the internet was in 1999 so it's still very early um you have about 400 million crypto users around the world uh and a good chunk of that is in the Middle East with the uee leading in terms of adoption at 28% but that being said there are other areas where crypto adoption has to catch up uh not just from a use but also from a regulatory framework and a and a mindset uh for the economy and the government direction to say hey we want to embrace web 3 once that happens we'll start to look at different Market opportunities size it up and then make a call commercially whether it makes sense to pursue it so crypto adoption as you just referenced it's at around 5% according to binance figures binance's data but since the Fallout from FTX bitcoin's never really recovered that the I would say The Vibes are bad The Vibes sort of continue to be bad what are your what's your outlook on market growth and how you kind of chart your way out of this this down downbeat time yeah I'm I'm personally you know quite optimistic you know with the uh emergence of any new disruptive industry you're going to have your ups and downs right it's just a part of the process and then you know for someone like to disrupt the incumbents there's always going to be a sense of resistance uh there's going to be a bit of you know issues and growing pains But ultimately I believe crypto will will find its way because it's such a powerful technology right and so with you know Bitcoin specifically as a use case for store value uh ethereum and the likes of the other Blue Chips you're going to be able to drive regulations bring in institutional ownership uh this is going to be important because it will streamline price volatility but also grow the pie um and from there you'll see crypto mature as as a as a as an asset class along with real estate bonds equities because if you think about it I mean crypto offers something quite unique um today it's about less than half percent of the total asset allocation pool uh but it does offer a lot of things that other asset classes don't so number one it's quite versatile you'll be able to get yields like you do with bonds you can get dividends from revenue share from protocols you will have uh appreciation and asset value like growth stocks um and you also have real estate exposure through the metaverse once that takes off if ever but the point is it's very diverse it's very new and then the second thing to remember is that we are seeing the foundations of blockchain offer operational efficiency to financial institutions they'll be able to settle and clear faster and cheaper uh they'll be tokenizing Financial assets to Democrat democratize it and then lastly something very important is happening where crypto is carving out its own correlation cycle to the macroeconomy and it's decoupling from stocks so will give asset managers diversity right um but then the last thing here is that and and this is what I tell my friends is that you have to realize there will be a intergenerational transfer of wealth from the Baby Boomers to the Millennials to the genzies okay so the future decision makers of money will want to allocate to this space so the future is bright generation Alpha off to generation Alpha it goes so that's interesting you said the word volatility so I want to stick with volatility and ask you do you think volatility in this space is a feature or a bug it's a feature one you learn from it all right it teaches you lessons you know with the Luna collapse it taught us that you have to really audit the underlying collateral not take it for granted with the FTX collapse we learned that you know you have to do your due diligence you have to have proper governance and controls in place for user safety right and so I think volatility is a necessary evil and as I said once it moves from early adopters to more mainstream to more institutional players in this in the space it will smoothen out over time that's interesting I want to stick on that 2023 will be a watershed year in the space for crypto what do you think the legacy of this year is going to be in terms of Lessons Learned interesting question I think the legacy of this year and there there's a lot to choose from but I would say that you know it's Crystal Clear that the old ways of doing things is is done and um crypto as an asset class needs to graduate and um you know enter a different cycle one that is a partner to regulators and institutions and governments in order to really Drive mainstream adoption going forward so this is a very technical it's a confusing industry I'm just Moonlighting here as somebody who's trying to understand this space um education is hugely important I think that this industry tends to operate um as I it's just it's plain confusing what are you doing to educate people should binance be educating people given your role in the market you're you're a whale should you be the ones educating do we need impartial parties educating great question so with the emergence of any disruptive technology it always tends to be esoteric where it only relates to a few segment of people but uh education is the main ingredient to kind of bridge that Gap and drive massive adoption so people need to understand what is crypto why is it important to them and how to use it safely so binance is already doing this and we invest a lot of our time and effort through binance Academy to achieve that objective but again the onus isn't just on us alone you know the more players in the space the merrier to really push that message forward and so for us specifically we conduct a lot of you know amas we do Partnerships with universities we have free courses online with all the content that you need even our uh product itself is designed in a way where when you first engage with the platform you go through what's called binance light it's a very seamless uh very intuitive uh uiux to get you to kind of you know dip your toes in crypto and then you evolve to binance Pro which is a more Rich feature set for more sophisticated investors talking about that product I want to kind of my last question here because our time here today is short unfortunately my last question is looking ahead casting ahead I know it's been a a rough couple of weeks you guys saw this coming though so you were your eyes are on other Trends your eyes are also on what else is happening cast out a decade from now think about Trend spotting what are your predictions for this space okay um so I think don't hold me accountable here but Bitcoin will be a global store of value defi will continue to grow crypto payments will become more ubiquitous in fact um stable coins settle just as much as Visa did last year around 11 trillion Worth right uh digital identity will become your new passport online and the wallet will become the new cookie that captures user data and insights for um you know advertisers Etc so businesses need to realize that change is coming they need to embrace it they need to adapt whether it's you know up updating their Tech STX or you know making sure their talent pool is aware of crypto and how to adapt uh web 3 rails to Future proof their business because if history taught us anything with the internet for example is that if you don't evolve with disruptive technology you die with it B thanks for talking to me this is fun thank you so much it's been a pleasure guys