CZ: Expects CEX and DEX to Coexist Long Term, Current World Crypto Adoption at Depth or Less Than 1%
BlockBeats News, February 12th, Binance founder CZ stated in an AMA:
I think CEX and DEX will coexist in the long term, for a very, very long time. At least from what I see now, they serve two completely different user groups.
DEX is operated directly from the wallet, and "safeguarding your own wallet" is still a professional skill today. Most people cannot safely custody their wallets themselves. If you want to actively trade on a DEX, you need to have a very high level of security on your computer. This means you can't just download files from the internet casually, can't open pictures your friend sends you, you have to do a lot of restrictions to truly "clean" your computer and ensure it never gets infected. If your wallet is on your computer and the computer is infected, your situation will be very bad.
So, these users and CEX users are totally different. CEX only requires an email, password, and customer support.
Moreover, in terms of crypto adoption, it is still very low. In terms of the number of users, I think it's probably single digits, maybe around 8% to 10% of the global population may hold some form of cryptocurrency. But in terms of the proportion of wealth, the crypto assets of these people may be less than 10% of their total assets. This means that globally, the true "adoption of crypto" depth may be less than 1%.
So for most users, what we call ordinary users, non-tech-savvy, when they first want to get involved in cryptocurrency, they will first go to a centralized exchange, that is, they will use CEX. Then as they become more professional, they may migrate to DEX.
But currently in the crypto world, there are many early adopters who are tech-savvy—tech geeks, as I call them. These people are more likely to move to DEX. For other mainstream users, however, moving to DEX is actually very difficult. However, tools will get better over time.
I don't think there is a real "competition" between CEX and DEX right now. Even if there is competition, there are thousands of CEX and thousands of DEX, the market is large enough to accommodate a large number of players.
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