CZ Says He Misjudged RWA Growth and Now Understands the Appeal
Forecast Trend Report by Period
Changpeng Zhao, Binance’s founder known as CZ, said he underestimated the growth potential of the real-world asset, or RWA, tokenization market. He added that he had repeatedly misread shifts in the crypto market, including the rise of non-fungible tokens and meme coins.
In a recent interview for "Binance Clubhouse Bali 2026," Zhao said that as recently as about a year and a half ago, he did not expect RWA to grow to its current scale. He said he is now beginning to understand why the sector is attractive.
Zhao also said he failed to anticipate the growth of NFTs and meme coins. He did not expect NFTs to gain broad popularity, and he had not thought meme coins would attract this much attention from the market.
"There have been many trends in the crypto market that I didn’t expect at first," Zhao said. "In many cases, I only understood why they became popular after they had already gained traction."
The RWA market has been expanding rapidly as more traditional financial assets, including U.S. Treasuries, stocks and private credit, are tokenized on blockchain networks. Global financial firms and crypto companies are also pushing into related products and infrastructure, helping drive the market’s expansion.
