CZ Calls Bitcoin, AI and Internet, the Greatest Inventions of His Lifetime

Changpeng Zhao (CZ), founder of Binance, says only three technologies truly shaped his life: the internet, Bitcoin, and artificial intelligence.

Speaking in a wide-ranging interview, CZ described Bitcoin as a once-in-a-generation breakthrough and placed it alongside the internet and AI as the most important inventions he has witnessed.

“There’s three fundamental technologies in my life: The internet. There’s Bitcoin. And now there’s AI, I wasn’t going to miss it. The next thing that’s going to come along is going to be 15 years later,” CZ stated.

He explained that he was too young to build anything meaningful during the early days of the internet. When Bitcoin appeared, he decided he would not miss the opportunity again.

Bitcoin: “The Biggest Thing in My Life”

According to the interview, CZ first heard about Bitcoin in 2013. At the time, he worked in financial technology and had years of experience building high-speed trading systems.

Moreover, even with that background, he said it took him about six months to fully understand Bitcoin’s design and potential. When he finally grasped it, he reached a clear conclusion.

“I think this is the biggest thing in my life,” CZ said.

He praised Bitcoin’s white paper for its clarity and simplicity. “It’s only nine pages,” he noted, adding that writing something so short and clear requires deep understanding.

Despite his conviction, he initially felt late to the market. Bitcoin had already climbed from around $70 to nearly $1,000 in 2013.

“It doesn’t matter when you get into Bitcoin, You always feel late.”

Still, he made a bold move. CZ sold his apartment in Shanghai for nearly $900,000 and invested the proceeds into Bitcoin over several months, buying at an average price of around $600 per coin.

From Salaryman to Crypto Founder

Before launching Binance, CZ built trading systems in Tokyo and later worked at Bloomberg in New York. He described himself during those years as “just a young guy trying to get a job and experience different parts of the world.”

Interestingly, his first crypto roles included Blockchain.info and later OKCoin, where he served as CTO. After leaving OKCoin, he ran a business that provided exchange software to about 30 trading platforms.

In 2017, Chinese regulators shut down many of his clients. That moment forced him to rethink everything.

“Binance or Tesla it’s a grind, It wasn’t obvious from the beginning,” CZ asserted.

He decided to launch his own crypto-to-crypto exchange. Within months, Binance was born.

Today, CZ views Bitcoin as part of a larger technological wave. Just as the internet changed communication and AI is reshaping computing, he believes Bitcoin changed money itself.

For him, the pattern is clear: once in a decade or two, a breakthrough arrives that reshapes the world, and this time, he chose not to watch from the sidelines.

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