Binance founder Changpeng Zhao said the cryptocurrency sector has endured the harshest crypto winter in its history and retains strong fundamental dynamics. Speaking at Bitcoin Asia 2026 in Hong Kong, Zhao, also known as CZ, said the market has matured significantly since previous sharp declines and expressed a positive outlook for its future. He identified tokenization of real-world assets (RWA), which represents physical or financial assets digitally on-chain, as a particularly promising area. Zhao said tokenized assets can reduce time and cross-border transaction constraints while improving liquidity for small and medium-sized assets by connecting them with global investors. On regulation, he described the United Arab Emirates (UAE) as a leader, said the US is advancing rapidly on stablecoin and cryptocurrency-exchange rules, and characterized Japan as crypto-friendly. He said Hong Kong is growing rapidly, while Singapore is taking a more cautious approach than other regions. Zhao also said decentralized exchanges (DEXs), which enable trading without a traditional centralized intermediary, have improved substantially in technology and user awareness over the past eight years. In his view, DEXs are now a more mature part of the crypto ecosystem, and looser global regulatory conditions could support a larger next phase of growth. His remarks pointed to regulatory clarity, broader RWA tokenization and stronger decentralized finance infrastructure as important drivers of the sector’s next stage.