Binance Founder admits that cryptocurrency payments have not yet become widespread

Source: Criptonoticias Original Title: Binance Founder Admits That “No One” Pays with Cryptocurrencies Original Link: The founder and former CEO of a certain exchange head, Changpeng Zhao (known as CZ), offered a critical and honest view on the current state of payments with bitcoin (BTC) and other digital assets during his participation in the World Economic Forum in Davos 2026.

Despite the exponential growth of the industry, Zhao acknowledged that the use of cryptocurrencies in everyday payments remains an unfinished goal.

Cryptocurrency payments are something we have tried and really haven’t conquered or even started in the digital assets world. We tried, but no one really pays with them.

The former executive pointed out that even a decade ago his answer would have been to bet on bitcoin payments. But ten years later, the scenario has not evolved as expected.

I remain skeptical about payments. We are working on it, but as in any field of innovation, there is always a very high failure rate.

Convergence as a Driver of Cryptocurrency Payment Adoption

Despite initial skepticism, Zhao emphasized that this year could mark a turning point. According to the entrepreneur, the key does not lie in merchants directly accepting bitcoin or cryptocurrencies. Instead, it is in the integration of hybrid solutions that connect traditional finance with the digital ecosystem.

I believe we are now seeing convergence where traditional payment methods are being backed behind the scenes by digital assets.

In this model, the user uses a debit card linked to their account, the digital assets balance is deducted, and the merchant receives fiat currency.

Now that we have these bridges, I think payments will gain a lot of momentum.

On the other hand, Zhao identified Artificial Intelligence (AI) as a fundamental catalyst for the future of digital currencies. According to his vision, AI agents will not use traditional banking systems.

He also emphasized that the tokenization of real-world assets (RWA) will grow this year.

I think tokenization is a huge topic. I am probably talking to a dozen governments about tokenizing some of their assets because this way, the government can first perceive the financial gains and use them to develop those industries: extraction, commercial markets, etc.

Warning about Memecoins and Speculation

Zhao’s analysis also addressed high-risk sectors such as memecoins. The founder compared the current boom of these coins to the NFT fever, suggesting that most of these assets lack long-term intrinsic value.

They are new areas of very high risk where value is highly speculative. Building use cases for them is difficult.

However, the market seems to ignore these warnings in the short term. So far in 2026, assets like PEPE and BONK have recorded weekly gains of over 40%.

This phenomenon is often interpreted as a symptom of renewed risk appetite, driven by bitcoin which started the year trading above $90,000 and increased global liquidity.

The Decline of Brick-and-Mortar Banking

Finally, Zhao made a prediction about the traditional financial system, stating that brick-and-mortar bank branches will decrease significantly in the next decade.

The need to go to a physical bank to carry out transactions will diminish. We have e-KYC and digital verification; we have everything electronic.

Although he clarified that banks will not disappear, he emphasized that the efficiency of Bitcoin technology will continue to displace obsolete physical structures in favor of a purely digital financial ecosystem.

Barriers to Mass Adoption of Payments

In light of CZ’s comments, it is important to mention which barriers have hindered the mass adoption of direct payments. One of these lies in the consolidation of bitcoin as a store of value asset.

Given the expectation of a constant appreciation of BTC, users and investors have tended to prefer holding medium- or long-term positions rather than spending them. This prioritizes the use of fiat currencies that lose value due to the scarcity of the digital asset.

On the other hand, the infrastructure of traditional finance (TradFi) still offers a “familiar” experience that, so far, has been difficult to match in the cryptocurrency space.

Therefore, it is plausible to estimate that the adoption of cryptocurrency payments will not come from a radical replacement of the traditional financial system. Instead, it would result from a symbiosis where digital assets serve as an alternative settlement network.