Binance co-founder Changpeng Zhao (CZ) and crypto billionaire Michael Saylor addressed the Bitcoin MENA conference in Abu Dhabi on Tuesday. Both the giants from the crypto sector talked about their personal takeaway from this year, while disclosing expectations and plans for the coming year. CZ did, however, clarify that he considers Saylor to be the bigger guy in BTC.
From prison to pardon: CZ’s takeaway
This year, CZ said, he was most grateful for being pardoned by U.S. President Donald Trump for having breached a U.S. bank secrecy law during his tenure as Binance CEO in 2023. CZ said President Trump is a friend of the crypto sector, who is now using the stock market as a benchmark to outline the U.S.’ crypto sector.
Talking about the investor pattern this year CZ acknowledged that institutional adoption of crypto has rocketed off in 2025. He credited ETFs for pushing crypto adoption among large-scale firms this year. Retail investors, meanwhile, seemingly took a back seat in rushing in and out of BTC this year, CZ highlighted.
“More Wall Street-linked institutions have come in than ever this year. So many firms now have exposure to Bitcoin. I think we welcome institutional participation in the ecosystem, but you can’t remove Bitcoin from the rest of the grassroot movement,” CZ said, highlighting that the majority of BTC still lay with retail investors.
Talking about his future plans, CZ confirmed that he is not looking to step into the Binance ecosystem in the foreseeable future. He said his prison tenure has scared him, but he was glad that it was him who took the fall and not other employees at Binance including co-founder and co-CEO Yi He.
Calling himself a crypto salesman, CZ said he plans to continue engaging with international governments and agencies to help them understand and adopt Bitcoin as a store of value.
“I want to help more people innovate. We shouldn’t just have one blockchain. We have multiple blockchains. And I think when the technology matures, like 1020, 30, years later, we can have a few blockchains. But today, for the amount of innovation we’re looking for the more innovations, the more blockchains we have, the better,” CZ noted.
At the Binance Blockchain Week held in Dubai earlier this month, CZ had sat for a debate with BTC critic Peter Schiff. Many at the event thought Schiff won the debate with his gold over BTC stance. CZ, commenting on this opinion said, he wanted to be generous as the host to grant Schiff the time to expand on his upcoming project on tokenizing gold.
“And then the more he talks about the tokenized gold, the more he has to talk about the benefits of blockchain,” CZ said, acknowledging that him handing over a gold bar to Schiff was a moment that went viral on social media.
As part of his closing remarks, CZ did say that the year of 2026 or 2027 could emerge as crypto winter years.
Saylor continued to sail on BTC
Strategy CEO Michael Saylor outlined his speech from last week’s Binance Blockchain Week at the Bitcoin MENA conference on Tuesday.
Saylor said this past week, he travelled around the Middle East region including the UAE, Kuwait, Bahrain, and Oman — concluding his trip in Abu Dhabi. He met with industry players and regulators in the regions to discuss crypto-related plans.
He took the stage to explain how his BTC treasury roadmap has panned out so far — that has now brought his holding of the most expensive asset to 660,624 tokens. Saylor said his company is investing upto a billion dollars per week in acquiring fresh BTC tokens.
Seconding CZ, Saylor also took the opportunity to thank U.S. President Trump and his administration for reviving the crypto sector with regulatory clarity over the last eleven months.