CZ Fireside Chat Full Text: HODL Strategy Challenged, Survival Rules Amid Market Volatility

Organizer: Frank, Zen, PANews

On the evening of April 6, CZ unexpectedly appeared at the BNB Chain Super Meetup in Hong Kong, engaging in an open fireside chat with community representative "土澳大师兄" (Master Brother from Australia). In light of the current frenzy surrounding MEME coins, belief fragmentation, and market volatility, CZ candidly stated, "Chasing after meme coins should not be the only thing in the crypto space."

"IF You can't hold, You won't be rich" ------ This classic saying from Binance founder CZ has influenced countless investors, but in the new cycle, the HODL strategy seems to be facing challenges. In this in-depth dialogue with the Hong Kong community, CZ publicly analyzed the development bottlenecks of BNB Chain, the community controversies surrounding MEME coins, and his expectations for a "healthy ecosystem" in the industry. He emphasized the need to "balance quick money and slow money," outlining a survival rule for investors that encompasses both risks and opportunities.

土澳大师兄: I have known CZ online for many years, but this is my first time meeting him in person. As a netizen, I go by the name 土豪大师兄 (Master Brother from Australia). I entered the industry in Australia in 2016. However, I believe the best decision I made in the crypto space was to join Binance early on, and I still hold the coins I bought during the ICO. So today, I am honored to have this opportunity to represent the community and interview CZ.

I have collected a lot of questions from the community, some of which I haven't had time to organize… and since time is limited, I will try to choose some slightly provocative questions.

土澳大师兄: First of all, many people feel that this cycle is very different. Whether it's the gradual decline of VC coins, the rise of MEME coins, or even Trump in the U.S. starting to support cryptocurrencies, it seems that there has been a certain degree of belief collapse in the entire cycle. So CZ, what do you think about the current market situation?

CZ: Let me ask first, how many of you are chasing after meme coins? (Many people raise their hands). Sorry, what I am about to say might upset you. I think chasing after meme coins can be a thing, but it shouldn't be the only thing in the crypto space. The momentum behind chasing meme coins is too strong, and it's not a healthy thing for the entire industry.

The industry should have people looking for wealth codes, enthusiastic about tokens with significant price increases, and there should also be long-term builders. But now all the attention is focused on MEME coins, and these MEME players are actually quite disappointed because they can't find tenfold or hundredfold tokens every day. Long-term builders are not getting any attention and feel it's not fun. When it comes to listing tokens on exchanges, they don't even know which ones to list. So the entire community is not particularly healthy. I think we still need some ways to break the deadlock.

土澳大师兄: Have you found a way to break the deadlock?

CZ: I think this is a process. It's not something that can be achieved overnight. For us, in the long run, we still need to support builders; long-term building will be more effective. There really needs to be real users, real income, and profits, so that users can benefit, and the token price can be maintained in the long term… I think both those who want to make quick money and those who want to make slow money should exist. But currently, those who want to make slow money are not getting enough support. So this afternoon, we organized MVB, and we are also investing. I personally communicate with builders.

土澳大师兄: I consider myself a "HODL" person. In fact, many people… truly holding coins or accumulating them, I was greatly influenced by many of your early shares. Because you once said, "IF You can't hold, You won't be rich," and my friends and I took it as a motto. In the past few cycles, we indeed made significant profits. But in this cycle, we also found ourselves punished. Do you think we should continue to stick to "HODL" now?

CZ: I think if you hold this view, you still need to look at the technical or fundamental aspects. You can't just accumulate every token in a market with millions of tokens. Most tokens may eventually go to zero… Some truly have fundamentals and real applications that you can hold for the long term.

土澳大师兄: So you believe that besides Bitcoin, there are other projects that might be worth trying and could outperform Bitcoin?

CZ: I think up to now, there are still quite a few projects that have outperformed Bitcoin. Although everyone is not very happy holding Ethereum right now, Ethereum has outperformed Bitcoin since its inception. BNB has also outperformed both Bitcoin and Ethereum from the beginning until now (here CZ refers to the period since the creation of these two tokens, not comparing to Bitcoin's issuance price). However, Bitcoin's current status as a reserve asset means that in the long run, holding Bitcoin will still appreciate. But there are still dozens or even hundreds of coins that might outperform Bitcoin.

土澳大师兄: That's more than I imagined; I thought there might only be a few?

CZ: Bitcoin's market cap is very high, so achieving a hundredfold increase is still very difficult. Therefore, some coins with good fundamentals have the opportunity to outperform Bitcoin for a period of time. But to seize these opportunities, one still needs the knowledge to discover and persist.

土澳大师兄: What are your expectations for BNB? Recently, some articles have predicted that BNB should be above $3000.

CZ: The article was likely written by Hash Global, who are long-term supporters. They said it would reach $40 when BNB was at $6, then $140 when it was at $40, and then $1000. Their research on BNB might be deeper than ours. I think the specific value is determined by the market. Our efforts are still focused on expanding the use cases of BNB. The more use cases there are, whether on centralized exchanges or DEXs, the higher the value of BNB. We are working hard to do this on both the Binance Chain and other chains. We mainly want more users to use BNB. We have made many efforts in various countries, both online and offline, regarding application scenarios.

We are also investing in DeFi, NFT, and GameFi, hoping to have more projects on BNB Chain… Some countries have approached us, saying they want to use BNB as their recognized digital currency, etc.

I believe this model is feasible, and these efforts are gradually advancing. We don't have any secrets; we just need to do our job well and increase the use cases.

土澳大师兄: How much do you think BNB will reach?

CZ: As for how much the price will rise, I can't say, and it's not something I can control. I can only say that we will continue to build the ecosystem and encourage more people to hold BNB.

土澳大师兄: Speaking of BNB holders, there's a saying recently ------ that BNB whales are like a retirement home, with too many benefits. Especially after new coins are launched, the whales receive many benefits, then dump the coins, leaving retail investors to pick up the pieces… Isn't this a bit unfair?

CZ: I think the more BNB holders there are, the better. The more people who hold BNB for retirement, the better, because BNB is limited in supply. It's better for more people to hold BNB, as the entire ecosystem will be more prosperous. Of course, some say that holders are not doing anything, but I think holding BNB is a form of contribution. In fact, it is precisely because of these holders that BNB is resilient, so we should be grateful to those who hold BNB for retirement.

土澳大师兄: Next, I want to ask a question about BNB Chain. In the past, we saw BNB Chain doing a lot of things, trying to create an artificial bull market. Has BNB Chain reached the height you expected now?

CZ: To be honest, I think it's still a bit low. I feel that BNB Chain hasn't done enough in the entire ecosystem. When I was the CEO of Binance… I spent more time on it. As for the BNB chain, we don't want it to develop strictly according to a plan but rather let it develop freely within the community. In the past year or two, I personally spent more time on related matters in the U.S., and my attention to BNB Chain was insufficient. This has also led to the fact that although meme coins have maintained their popularity over the past year, BNB Chain has hardly participated.

BNB Chain has slightly warmed up in the short term, but the degree is still far from enough. I believe that regardless of what the next hot topic is, such oversights (like this) will not happen again, and the entire BNB Chain community will definitely seize the opportunity. There are still many things to be done, and I believe that fields like AI and DeSci will develop well in the future.

To be honest, BNB Chain started with relatively limited resources, and its initial attention was not as high as Ethereum's. Over the past year, I have also been busy dealing with compliance and other matters in the U.S. However, BNB Chain is currently developing well; it just hasn't fully realized its potential. We will further invest in infrastructure, DApps, and DeFi. This ecosystem cannot be built overnight; it requires continuous cultivation. We also hope that more developers are willing to come to BNB Chain, and I believe there will be more opportunities in the future. Today, when I met with 16 projects from MVB, there were all kinds of ideas that could be explored.

土澳大师兄: Recently, you have done a lot in the meme space and have been learning. Back to meme coins, like the recent PVP. Many people think it's a short-term frenzy, while others believe it's a community trend. What do you think?

CZ: I can tell everyone that my learning in the meme space has been somewhat unsuccessful, causing many problems for the community. Because I didn't understand it well enough myself, when everyone said, "You should post dog pictures," I thought that posting dog pictures might attract some traffic and create some buzz, which would be fun. But later I realized several mistakes, including that the community also told me that once I post a few pictures at a specific time, everyone knows that there will definitely be hundreds of meme coins released simultaneously, causing serious PVP.

After causing PVP, the community hoped I would choose one (memecoin), but that's very difficult. I think it shouldn't be me who chooses, but rather the community. I believe meme coins have their community popularity, but they come and go quickly. Sustainability depends on how the community develops later. We (Binance) will generally support things that have high community popularity, but we will also consider whether they are legal and compliant and whether they have value.

As for whether memecoins will be as popular as before, I'm not so sure. Many people say there are many meme coins on Solana with a market cap over $1 billion, but none have emerged on BNB Chain yet. However, at this stage, whether Solana can produce another "billion-dollar market cap" coin? I don't know; I think that's also very difficult. So we still need to support the community. If the community's popularity is there, we will support it; if the community shifts to other things, we will also shift to other things.

My starting point is to keep pushing to be a good builder, to truly be a long-term builder. I will also interact with the community, and I will engage with fun projects. As for how far this wave of memecoins will go, I really can't see it clearly. Personally, I don't trade coins; I don't buy memecoins, and I have never bought NFTs. I am very supportive of this industry; I want to build its infrastructure, and I have great confidence in this foundation, but I won't be the one buying and speculating.

土澳大师兄: I see you often on Twitter, looking at the suggestions or evaluations from everyone. Do you take people's suggestions into account?

CZ: I have more time now, so I spend more time browsing Twitter. Of course, it also depends on the specific situation. For example, today I have a meeting, so I have less time for (Twitter) interaction. It's normal to receive both positive and negative evaluations. Personally, I don't mind too much, but I will see if there is constructive feedback. If it's insults or false information, we may clarify it appropriately. I prefer to hear the community's actual thoughts; whether it's praise or criticism, it helps improve. We will take suggestions into account; some of the suggestions we see are quite (constructive). I spend a lot of time on Twitter and less in WeChat groups.

土澳大师兄: Do you feel upset when you see negative evaluations on Twitter?

CZ: Actually, I don't. I have a thick skin. When I see criticism, I think I shouldn't feel too bad; instead, I should calmly understand and learn why others are criticizing, grasping the essence of their criticism. So we shouldn't take ourselves too seriously; whether others insult you or praise you, it shouldn't matter too much.

土澳大师兄: A few final questions: If someone is a newcomer, is now a good time to enter the space? How should they avoid risks?

CZ: I think it's never too late to enter the space, but it depends on how you enter. The most important thing is to have a basic understanding of the project and not to fantasize about getting rich overnight. Newcomers should still try to look at the fundamentals; things that can increase tenfold or a hundredfold overnight can also lose money very quickly. New entrants shouldn't put too much money in at first; starting with a small amount of investment will make the results easier to accept. They can consider investing in batches or using DCA (dollar-cost averaging) methods, selecting some mainstream coins, and not going all in. Additionally, they should maintain a calm mindset; once they enter the space, they need to accept its volatility and not be influenced by short-term fluctuations. The industry is still in its early stages and requires time to build; if they believe in its long-term value, they can hold on. In the long run, the future development of the industry is promising, but in the short term, such volatility will be very strong, so everyone must pay attention to risks.

土澳大师兄: What book are you currently reading?

CZ: I am reading a book by Nvidia, "The Nvidia Way." I think it's well-written and provides insights into how others start their businesses.

土澳大师兄: OK, we are running out of time today. Is there anything else you want to say to the community?

CZ: I just want to tell everyone to pay attention to the fundamentals and long-term building. Short-term speculation can exist, but one must assess the risks themselves. The crypto space is a highly volatile industry, especially in areas like DeFi and meme coins, which are not very stable. I hope everyone can participate in a healthier and more rational way. We will continue to invest in the industry and provide more support and services for the community.

土澳大师兄: Alright, thank you, CZ. That's about it for today. Thank you very much for accepting the interview.