Binance Founder CZ: Privacy ‘Missing Link’ for Crypto Payments Adoption

Binance founder Changpeng Zhao has argued that privacy is the most significant unresolved challenge facing crypto, and that the industry needs to move faster to address it.

Speaking on the All-In Podcast with venture capitalist and Social Capital CEO Chamath Palihapitiya last week, CZ said most digital assets fall short on privacy protections, leaving users exposed in ways that cash never would.

“I think privacy plays a very fundamental role in our society,” CZ said. “But right now, I also think that Bitcoin and most cryptocurrencies do not have enough privacy features.”

“When Bitcoin was designed, it was going to be pseudo-anonymous,” he added, noting that, “the fact is, every transaction on the blockchain can be traced, especially now we have a centralized exchange with KYC.”

He highlighted situations like paying for a hotel with cryptocurrency, arguing that if third parties know the hotel’s blockchain receiving address, “they will know that you will be in that hotel”—posing a “physical security” risk.

As the industry pushes for mainstream adoption, with AI agents, institutional players, and a pro-crypto White House all converging, the open ledger design baked into Bitcoin and most major blockchains remains a structural challenge the industry has yet to solve at scale.

CZ argued that the industry still lacks a workable answer on payment privacy, noting it must “figure out how to evolve the privacy features,” an area he said “no one’s really focusing on right now.”

While some privacy coins exist, CZ noted, they remain small, with “not much market cap” and “not much size.”

The “missing link”

In a follow-up tweet on Sunday, CZ extended the argument to the corporate world.

“(Lack of) Privacy may be the missing link for crypto payments adoption,” he said.

He used the example of a company that pays employees in crypto on-chain. “With the current state of crypto, you can pretty much see how much everyone in the company is paid (by clicking the from address),” CZ wrote.

Binance and privacy coins

CZ’s comments prompted some users to raise questions about Binance’s own history with privacy coins.

In February 2024—after CZ stepped down as CEO of the exchange—Binance delisted Monero (XMR). Then the largest privacy coin by market cap at approximately $2.6 billion, Monero’s price fell 17% on the announcement.

Last April, Binance drew attention again for including Zcash (ZEC) in a community vote on potential delistings, with Zcash founder Zooko Wilcox publicly tagging the exchange’s CEO Richard Teng to raise concerns.

Binance has historically cited trading volume, liquidity, and safety standards when reviewing assets for delisting, stating it acts “when a coin or token no longer meets this standard, or the industry changes.”

Privacy preserving infrastructure and crypto

Privacy coins themselves “aren’t necessarily the answer here,” Nic Puckrin, digital asset analyst and co-founder of Coin Bureau, told Decrypt. Instead, he argued, the focus should be on “widescale privacy preserving infrastructure for businesses.” Puckrin added that, “It’s not about making payments untraceable—it’s about keeping them private while complying with regulators and authorities.”

For his part, CZ argued that, “There are real use cases for privacy, which Bitcoin and most other cryptocurrencies do not provide.” While conceding that there’s a “counter argument” that “law enforcement want to track down bad guys,” he argued that “can be done,” without elaborating. He added, “I’m supportive of that, but there are fundamental privacy issues.”

CZ stepped down from Binance in November 2023 after pleading guilty to a Bank Secrecy Act violation, with the exchange paying $4.3 billion in penalties.

He served a four-month federal sentence before being released in September 2024 and received a presidential pardon last year. In October 2025, U.S. Senator Chris Murphy (D-CO) alleged that Binance “greased the wheels” for a $500 million deal between a UAE-backed entity and World Liberty Financial, a DeFi project with links to the Trump family, in exchange for Zhao’s pardon.

In response, Binance US tweeted that “routine business decisions are now unfairly politicized by our elected officials.”