Binance co-founder Changpeng “CZ” Zhao said he hopes cryptocurrencies and blockchain will simply become an undetectable part of everyday infrastructure by 2031, much like the Internet is today.
On Thursday, Zhao spoke on Scott Melker’s Wolf of All Streets podcast he said that while recent applications and advancements will continue to emerge, he hopes that conversations about this technology will die down as it becomes part of everyday life.
“I hope that in five years we won’t be talking about cryptocurrencies as cryptocurrencies anymore, just like we’re not talking about the Internet anymore, we’re not talking about TCP/IP anymore, we’re not talking about HTML, JavaScript, etc. We don’t talk about these things anymore. We just use it.”
“I think in five years we will only use cryptocurrencies,” he added. “There will be other use cases for blockchain to store data, so there will be other use cases, but hopefully in five years we will stop talking about this technology, we just use it and it will be used everywhere.”
Freedom of Money with CZ (AMA) https://t.co/ig5azu5ZcU
— Wolf of all streets (@scottmelker) April 9, 2026
An bullish vision of cryptocurrencies in 2030
Global cryptocurrency adoption continues to grow. It is estimated that in 2026, 559 million people around the world will utilize cryptocurrencies, According to DemandSage, a data and analytics company.
Industry insiders predicted last September that the sector could be just one market cycle away from full-scale mainstream adoption.
CZ is not alone in his lofty hopes for the future.
Cathie Wood ARK Invest predicted in a January report that digital assets could grow to a $28 trillion market by 2030, while Tether co-founder Reeve Collins said last October that he expected all currencies to become stablecoins by the same date.
Meanwhile, blockchain analytics firm Chainalytic recently estimated that stablecoin volume could reach $1.5 trillion by 2035, and a Citi survey of banks and asset managers last September found that most expect one-tenth of global post-trade volume to be handled via stablecoins and tokenized securities in less than five years.
Artificial intelligence can accelerate blockchain development
Zhao added that blockchain technology could also gain popularity and development through artificial intelligence.
“The speed of development and writing code will increase quite dramatically, and artificial intelligence agents will use cryptocurrencies frequently,” Zhao said, adding that “I hope that blockchain will get there, and I also kind of know that blockchain will get there.”
In March, Zhao argued that developers of AI agents should prioritize their internal utility rather than launching internal native tokens to raise funds.
Countries that avoid AI and blockchain will be left behind
At the same time, Zhao said that countries that avoid blockchain technology and artificial intelligence will be at a great disadvantage in the future.
Related: CZ’s memoir revives the dispute with OKX founder Star Xu over contract forgery and Huobi’s arrest
“I think there are really three big industries in my adult life: the internet, blockchain and artificial intelligence. Any country that misses one of them will be at a huge disadvantage,” he added.
Signzy customer onboarding platform ranking Switzerland as the most cryptocurrency-friendly country in its January blog. During Arkham tiled the country as one of the most groundbreaking jurisdictions in the world.
Meanwhile, Microsoft’s January AI report named the US as a leader in artificial intelligence infrastructure and frontier model development, although she noted that the country lags behind smaller, highly digital economies such as the United Arab Emirates in terms of actual utilize.
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