According to Changpeng Zhao, chief executive officer of Binance, cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin and Ether will coexist “for a while” with more restrictive Central bank-issued digital coins.
Central bank-issued digital coins
Zhao, who runs the world’s largest Bitcoin exchange, believes that central bank-issued digital coins will differ from public coins in a variety of ways. They won’t have the same freedom of use and won’t have a supply cap, Zhao, also known as CZ, said in a Bloomberg TV interview on Monday.
“Most central-bank digital currencies are going to have a lot of control attached to them,” Zhao said.
The differences between the two types of coins may make the central-bank version unappealing to those interested in the crypto world.“At the end of the day, those are core properties that users care about,” he said.
This year, Bitcoin and Ether have reached all-time highs as institutional investors and corporations purchase cryptocurrencies to add to their balance sheets. On Monday, Ether reached a new high of $3,339 per coin. While Bitcoin is only used for transferring digital value, Ether supports the Ethereum blockchain, which allows for more types of transactions.
User demand for Ether to buy assets such as non-fungible tokens also could be driving prices higher, Zhao said.
“All of these use cases are moving right now and people need the other coins to do this type of new transaction,” he said. “Ethereum is one of those clear examples. That’s probably why Ether is going up.”
According to him, roughly 70% of Binance users are retail customers, with the remainder being institutional investors. He has no plans to go public, following in the footsteps of Coinbase Global Inc., which listed shares directly on Nasdaq last month.
Binance is making money on its own and doesn’t need to raise more, he said.
Source : The Economic Times
