Binance founder Changpeng Zhao, known as CZ, said he had underestimated the growth of real-world asset (RWA) tokenization and memecoins, while describing the cryptocurrency industry as having overcome its harshest crypto winter and retaining solid fundamentals. Speaking at Bitcoin Asia 2026 in Hong Kong and at EASY Residency, an incubation program hosted by YZi Labs, Binance’s investment arm formerly known as Binance Labs, Zhao said demand for tokenized assets was increasing, from U.S. Treasuries to stock tokens such as bStocks. He said on-chain assets can reduce time and cross-border constraints, connect global investors and improve liquidity for small and mid-sized assets, while urging countries and companies to capitalize on the sector’s expansion. Zhao said Bitcoin could reach $1 million sooner than 25 years and eventually become more important than gold. RWA.xyz recorded $38.35 billion in distributed RWAs on-chain as of August 28, 2026, excluding stablecoins, with nearly 3 million holders, while represented asset value across the broader tokenization market reached $380.88 billion. Zhao described the UAE as probably the most progressive or most advanced major crypto jurisdiction, said Hong Kong was moving quickly, and characterized the United States as progressing rapidly on stablecoin and exchange regulation, Japan as friendly and Singapore as relatively conservative. He also said decentralized exchanges had matured in technology and user awareness over the past eight years, while liquidity, fragmented regulation and product complexity remained constraints on tokenization growth.