Binance co-founder Changpeng \u201cCZ\u201d Zhao told an interview at the ASEAN Tech Summit on July 31 that every country will ultimately need its own stablecoin, framing the industry's growth as dependent on closer communication between crypto companies and regulators rather than crypto operating around them.
The remark came just three days after Zhao used a fireside chat at the same summit, held in Manila, to push a more concrete regulatory proposal: a crypto license passporting system across ASEAN's ten member states. Under that plan, a company already licensed in one ASEAN jurisdiction would face a streamlined approval process elsewhere in the bloc rather than a full re-application, cutting the compliance overhead crypto and stablecoin providers currently face navigating ten separate regulatory regimes. Zhao argued regulators could still review applicants under the passporting model, just without forcing them through duplicate paperwork.
Two Remarks, One Underlying Argument
Together, the two statements sketch out a consistent view from Zhao: that stablecoins are headed toward becoming standard national infrastructure, and that the regulatory frameworks governing crypto and stablecoin providers need to consolidate rather than multiply as that happens. Neither statement amounts to policy. No ASEAN regulator or intergovernmental body has announced a formal passporting proposal, consultation, or target date, and Zhao's own comments on national stablecoins were offered as a forecast rather than an announcement of any Binance initiative.
The timing is notable given how much of the stablecoin conversation in 2026 has centered on U.S. dollar-pegged tokens dominating cross-border payments. Zhao's framing, that individual countries will eventually issue their own, points to a more fragmented stablecoin landscape than the current dollar-token-dominated market, one where national currencies compete on-chain the way they already do in traditional foreign exchange markets.
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For now, both remarks function as industry commentary from one of crypto's most-watched figures rather than binding policy, but they add to a growing body of public statements from major exchange executives arguing that regulatory fragmentation, not blockchain technology itself, is the primary obstacle to stablecoins scaling further.
