Binance founder Changpeng Zhao stated that some hot money is flowing back from the artificial intelligence sector to the crypto market, emphasizing that the currency industry will not disappear and that individuals and AI will still need funding in the future.

He described the capital return as a phase reallocation rather than a permanent exit of assets. Six months ago, he explained to English media that during the downturn of crypto in the first half of 2026, he listed geopolitical tensions, the four-year cycle, and capital shifting to AI together. At that time, Bitcoin fell about 50% from its peak of over $126,000 in October 2025, after starting the year near $89,000 and briefly touching $96,000 before dropping to around $60,000.

He has long viewed crypto and AI as sequential waves rather than zero-sum opponents, stating that the withdrawal of hot money from new industries is positive in the long run. His investment platform YZi Labs publicly allocates about 70% to crypto, 20% to AI, and 10% to biotechnology, with the AI side leaning more towards "shovel" assets like data centers and power, rather than directly betting on application layer model companies.

He repeatedly emphasized that AI agents require a programmable, cross-border, callable interface for settlement layers, noting that credit cards lack native APIs, making blockchain more suitable for machine-to-machine transfers. Binance has launched Agent OS, which integrates market data, payments, on-chain data, and trading capabilities into workflows, advocating that exchanges should not block AI orders but should open tools to all users.

Most of his net worth is concentrated in BNB, and his statements align with the platform's liquidity, on-chain payment narrative, and compliance expansion in the U.S. He previously discussed how tokenization could serve as a channel for countries and enterprises to attract external funding, viewing stablecoins as the first entry point for the combination of AI and crypto, with agency trading expected to precede agency payments.

In market mechanisms, this is a narrative-driven style rotation: short-term funds are withdrawing from overvalued AI growth stocks and computing power themes, seeking volatility and trading turnover; sellers are taking profits from AI-themed positions, while buyers include exchanges, market makers, and on-chain speculators. The event itself does not create new savings but changes risk preferences, benefiting trading volume and platform tokens, while putting pressure on application-layer AI projects that still rely on storytelling for financing and have yet to realize cash flow.

Source: Public Information