Binance founder CZ blames crypto's sour 2026 on mix of AI, global tension, 4-year cycle

There is no easy answer to the question of why crypto markets have fallen so much in the first half of 2026, Binance founder Changpeng "CZ" Zhou said.

Geopolitical tensions, investors shifting funds to AI and the typical four-year crypto market cycle may all be contributing to the extended price decline in bitcoin BTC$60,294.72 and other cryptocurrencies, he told CoinDesk in an exclusive interview earlier this month. The world's largest cryptocurrency has been on a steady decline since last year, opening 2026 trading near $89,000 and climbing to just over $96,000 before falling to about $60,000, the level near which it trades at press time.

The numbers look even worse looking back 12 months; bitcoin — on which he said the strength of Binance is closely tied — hit an all-time high north of $126,000 last October, and is down some 50% since.

CZ said his long-term view is that the crypto industry will continue to grow, though that's not a totally selfless assessment. He said most of his net worth is wrapped up in the BNB token, meaning he does have a substantial stake in the health of the crypto market and the exchanges he founded, Binance and Binance.US. But CZ's assessment comes as someone who's been part of the crypto industry — and a key player in growing it — for more than a decade.

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"Over the long run, the industry will develop," he said. "There's going to be more and more demand for financial technologies, because there will be more and more transactions, so the industry will grow. So, I'm not worried about the industry or the short-term price fluctuations."

That "new industries like AI" were taking in the "hot money" from the crypto industry will be a positive fact in the long term, he said.

Similarly, CZ said the rapid growth of prediction markets as a tool that could provide price discovery and liquidity would be "good for the population."

"We can price things much more accurately and we can predict things more accurately," he said.