A young population, limited legacy banking, and regulatory “white space” give developing nations a structural advantage, Binance founder says
Binance founder Changpeng Zhao (CZ) believes the next wave of digital-asset leadership will not come from the world’s financial giants, but from emerging markets that can leapfrog outdated systems and move straight into blockchain-native economies. Speaking in Dubai during Blockchain Week 2025, CZ argued that developing countries — from Africa to Southeast Asia — possess the ideal conditions for fast, large-scale adoption of digital finance.
Unlike mature economies burdened with decades of legacy infrastructure, emerging markets have fewer structural barriers. With minimal dismantling required, governments and startups can deploy blockchain systems “on greenfield terrain,” accelerating innovation at far lower cost. CZ cited Africa as a textbook example: despite banking penetration below 11%, smartphone penetration has skyrocketed to 50–70%. With a single app, millions can access financial services without ever passing through traditional banking rails.
Demographics amplify the opportunity. Young populations — far more tech-savvy and far more enthusiastic about digital assets — are ready to experiment, adopt new financial behaviors, and build Web3 applications. This generational pull, CZ said, forces governments to move faster. Countries with open-minded regulators will attract talent, investment, and Web3 ecosystems that can ultimately strengthen national competitiveness.
For many developing nations, regulation remains an open frontier. CZ stressed that early rules will be imperfect, but the core requirement is clarity combined with adaptability. Rather than building a separate universe for digital assets, he urged governments to integrate blockchain into existing financial frameworks — the only path, he argued, to true mass adoption. Ongoing technical consultations between regulators and industry operators, he added, are essential to creating workable and safe environments for exchanges and blockchain infrastructure.
Zooming out, CZ cautioned that digital assets remain in an early — and often misunderstood — stage of development. To illustrate, he compared blockchain’s trajectory to the evolution of the internet. In 1995, people were already imagining video conferencing and virtual-reality meetings, yet it took nearly three decades for those ideas to become functional — and they still face limitations. Blockchain, he said, is no different: powerful in theory, messy in practice, and inevitably slow to mature.
The fact that digital assets are not yet everywhere should not be seen as failure, CZ emphasized. Instead, it is a sign of a breakthrough technology still developing through experimentation, generational learning, and the gradual build-out of supporting ecosystems.
For emerging markets, that long arc represents a once-in-a-century opportunity — a chance not just to adopt new technology, but to define the infrastructure of the future global financial system.
