Crypto markets have been volatile since U.S. President Trump was elected in November 2024. His pro-crypto promises prompted bitcoin to record highs, but his recent “America First” policies have rattled markets, including crypto.
At CNBC’s CONVERGE LIVE event in Singapore, Arjun Kharpal spoke with Binance’s CEO Richard Teng and HashKey Capital’s CEO Chao Deng about the future of the crypto industry.
“The more people learn about crypto as a journey, the more they understand all the important utility and use cases,” Teng told CNBC at CONVERGE LIVE.
“Crypto is instantaneous, you receive your funds at a fraction of the cost of what traditional financial institution charge. Same for payments, fees, etcetera. So, there are so many important use cases,” he added.
The conversation took place just a few weeks after President Trump announced the creation of a “Strategic Bitcoin Reserve.”
“The messaging is the largest government, the largest economy, the biggest capital market in the world is now holding Bitcoin as part of a reserve. It will cause many other governments to think through the issue,” Teng said.
Regarding crypto adoption, HashKey’s Chao Deng talked about the recent changes made by the U.S. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) that allow U.S. banks to hold crypto.
“This is a very huge step for the crypto and Web3 industry. Before that, the banks were very conservative about serving the crypto space, but after this, they feel more comfortable to deal with crypto-related clients,” Deng said.
Another topic on the agenda was China’s re-adoption of crypto.
“When it comes to crypto, the Chinese leaders have always stopped across in the river by filling the stones. They have to do it step by step. Hong Kong is always like the window. It’s the research lab,” Deng told CNBC.
“If everything goes well, if mainland China see they progress in mass adoption, there is a likelihood,” he added.
China was once one of the world’s largest cryptocurrency markets, but the country gradually disallowed crypto operations, achieving an absolute ban in 2021.
You can catch the full conversation by watching the video above or listening to CNBC’s Beyond the Valley podcast.