He Yi: The AI Singularity Has Arrived, Binance Aims to Serve 3 Billion People | 2026 Hong Kong Web3 Carnival

On April 20, the 2026 Hong Kong Web3 Carnival grandly opened at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre. During the afternoon panel discussion session, Binance Co-CEO He Yi and Wanxiang Blockchain Lab Head Du Yu engaged in a discussion themed "From Leapfrogging to Rebuilding: The Future of Finance is Being 'Reprogrammed'".

Dialogue Transcript

Du Yu: Hello everyone! I'm Du Yu from Wanxiang Blockchain Lab. Today, Sister Yi has also felt everyone's enthusiasm. Sister Yi, please say hello to everyone.

He Yi: Hello everyone! I'm Binance's "Chief Customer Service Officer" Xiao He. Thank you all!

Du Yu: Over the past year, many interesting things have actually happened in the entire industry, especially the impact or opportunities brought by AI. I feel that at this moment of diversified convergence, having this dialogue with you here is particularly interesting.

Yesterday, I saw many people asking you specific questions during the AMA. Today, I want to chat more with you about your perspective on the entire industry. In the recent half-year of market changes, where does your personal interest lie? What new changes in your schedule, or things you think about more often, excite you or even give you a sense of urgency?

He Yi: Just now, AI was mentioned. Currently, my personal life and time allocation for work are roughly divided into three modules:

First, the approaching AI singularity is indeed a moment that no one can ignore, a truly historic moment for humanity. So I spend a lot of time thinking about the potential transformations that AI and blockchain, and AI and finance, might bring to the entire world, and what the future form of finance will be. This means I need to think about what Binance's products and services might look like ten years from now.

Second, I spend quite a lot of time thinking about organization and talent. Because often we say that in the early stages of a company, growth might be driven by the Founder, Co-Founder, or individual strengths; but when a company reaches a certain scale, it's actually about organizational efficiency—how to make the organization self-sufficient and self-growing. This is an area I continuously spend time thinking about and adjusting.

Third, there's the further integration between Crypto and traditional finance that people often talk about. Because at this particular moment, we see very significant and friendly promotion of the entire blockchain industry, whether from the US or the Hong Kong government. So I think we might see earth-shaking changes in the entire industry in the future. Often, when a singularity arrives, when the moment comes, we are actually unaware. But when it happens, it might just be an ordinary day of eating, drinking, and sleeping, yet the changes it brings to our lives and impact might be that all future global forex transactions occur on the blockchain, possibly no longer on the old SWIFT system. We might see that all future asset trading is no longer limited to a few hours but is global 24/7, just like in the crypto world.

So we will see the entire world entering a state of very high-speed "push-back sensation."

Du Yu: You just described a very exciting future. Often when discussing the future, it seems like something three, five, or ten years away, but this year it really feels different. I feel the exponential inflection point is right there, something that could happen today or tomorrow. I think many people here might share this sense of urgency. Following what Sister Yi just said about AI and the future of finance, let's dive deeper into some interesting discussions.

Starting with AI, organization is crucial, especially for a company like Binance, which is almost ten years old. Many people have recently seen many tech companies laying off employees, but their stock prices haven't dropped. It's not because of poor performance but because of organizational improvement. There's even the recent trend of one-person companies, but personally, I think that's a bit exaggerated or hasn't reached that point yet. However, companies with three to five or less than ten people can now do what companies with dozens or hundreds of people used to do. This is certain and is already happening.

AI is rewriting everything. How has AI changed your personal thinking and decision-making, and then the entire Binance platform, even across borders? I think Binance faces more challenges than many other large companies because you are a very globalized company. There aren't many companies more globalized or more distributed than your clients. What opportunities and challenges has AI brought you?

He Yi: First, Binance does not plan to conduct large-scale layoffs and cost-cutting efficiency improvements like most tech companies. For us, AI is actually about making strong people stronger. For example, in the past, many might think a programmer writing code could have innovative structural thinking but might be limited when actually writing code. But today, using AI to write code is already very smooth and mature, potentially increasing efficiency tenfold.

I found something quite interesting. We once had an employee who was discovered working multiple jobs because AI writing code significantly improved his efficiency. He felt the work was easily manageable, so he took on another job. Of course, he was eventually fired.

The overall thinking is to hope to further enhance the entire organization's output capability and innovation ability, rather than merely pursuing cost-cutting and efficiency improvements on the existing scale. This year, I proposed an idea that others might find a bit crazy. In the past, we said we aimed for 1 billion users, but this year I told everyone we should aim for 3 billion users. Because we already have 300 million users. What does becoming a company with 3 billion users mean? It means Binance is not just an exchange; Binance is global financial infrastructure. It means our services must target ordinary people, the masses, and every individual. Their service might be day-by-day payments, daily wealth management, or every detail of their daily life. This pushes me to want employees to do more innovation and experimentation.

While the business continuously expands its boundaries, their foundational structure must be stable enough. Because I've also received many complaints from friends saying our products could be smoother. So this year, I've also spent a lot of time optimizing the product. Give me a few more months, and I'll make it even better.

Second, regarding AI's impact on us, I think the greater impact is that in the past, when we understood AI, we thought it was a child with very high aspirations. But if you have young children at home, you'll find that children sometimes talk nonsense. I don't know if you've seen the movie "A Little Red Flower," where kindergarten children might say the teacher is a monster. You'll find AI has very similar characteristics to a young, high-IQ child. It might not have structured logic, and its memory might be discontinuous. On this logic, we've seen a huge leap. The AI of the last cycle (2025) was a high-IQ brain, but in just a few months today, I think AI has grown its own hands.

For example, the recently popular lobster, and now these Skills, most leading large models are already equipped with them. This means AI is no longer just a concept; it has truly begun to enter everyone's life. Of course, the most obvious might be writing code. Why writing code? Essentially because currently, programmers are the group earning the most money worldwide. People say how to use AI? Then first replace the most expensive group.

So I think in the longer-term future, today's work is somewhat like workers in a candle factory, but electricity has arrived, electric lights have arrived. The huge impact and reflection it brings us is not just about the old paradigm, but when new technological changes arrive, as an individual, as a company, what responsibility do you bear in the entire society and organization? But I don't think the individual company thing is that novel.

If you look back at the influencer era and personal IPs, for example, the previous anchor Li Jiaqi could personally achieve a scale of hundreds of millions, much larger than many companies. But I think more reflection is on what part of the responsibility you bear for the public within the entire society and organization.

Du Yu: You mentioned earlier going from 300 million to 3 billion users. Actually, while I was preparing questions, including when you were speaking, my view was that you are too conservative. Why? With the development of AI, we also feel that Crypto itself is not for humans to use; it's for AI to use. Many say that in the future, whether you are wealthy will depend on how many robots you have, how much AI you have, and how much computing power you can mobilize. So have you considered that in Binance's product design—not just Binance, but the entire Web3 industry—entrepreneurs here should design products for AI users, for AI Agents? At that time, the user base isn't a matter of 300 million or 3 billion; it could be tens or hundreds of billions of users. The architecture then would be different, and the opportunities brought to Web3 would also be different. Standing at this point in time, it feels like all the traffic and capital are being attracted to AI, but what still excites me is the combination of AI with Web3, and then with robots and robotic dogs. This is the truly exciting next-generation internet. What are your thoughts on this trend?

He Yi: I think currently AI has entered two different branches, with conflicts and discussions, of course. For example, large language models to Web Coding is one route; physical AI actually now has many breakthroughs. If we must look to the future, you shouldn't view Crypto as Crypto; you should see it as a more efficient, lower-cost financial system. On such a highly optimized structure, how can AI serve the public more efficiently?

Some time ago on Twitter, there was a discussion. People said, look at Western AI, Anthropic and OpenAI making short films satirizing each other, while China's AI war is about giving away milk tea.

This question made me think for quite a while. I think we shouldn't have technological arrogance. No matter how amazing or advanced AI technology is, for the individual, for the human individual, the most important thing is how this technology serves me and helps make my life better. Whether it's Doubao or Qianwen, when it can tell an elderly lady in a Chinese rural area that the health products recommended by a third party are fake and she shouldn't buy them, I think this is the value and meaning technology brings to humanity. When a lonely elderly person in the countryside can have someone to chat with every day through Doubao, I think this is the meaning technology brings to humanity. No matter where humanity goes, we still need to look back and remember we are human, and still have compassion for all living things.

Du Yu: Especially for people like us with technical backgrounds, sometimes there's an instinct to show off skills here. Including many Web3 entrepreneurial companies and projects, they might think this is a very cool thing, a very cool product, a very cool technology, but in the end, they find there are no users, or they serve only a very narrow, small user circle. It's often said that you are the "customer service officer," the "first customer service officer," but actually also the first product manager. What's very important is insight into human nature. All technological progress, including the progress of financial tools, is to serve better humanity. Ultimately, we are not serving robots; robots also serve people, and AI is also used to serve people.

Earlier, you mentioned financial infrastructure. I also think the core of Web3 is financial infrastructure or the next generation of financial infrastructure. Some time ago, I saw you retweeted Binance's Twitter, which had two pie charts: left for Crypto, right for traditional TradFi, with the overlapping part being Binance. I think back in 2017 when I first encountered Binance, I thought the name was really good. I don't know how you came up with that name at the time. It's also written in "The Binance Life," but it seems written quite simply. In my understanding, "Finance" is easy to understand—it's existing finance. But "B" might be Bitcoin, or the entire digital world. In this process of crossover or overlapping area, why do you think Binance is overlapping and iterating? What do you think Binance wants to express in the future financial system?

He Yi: In 2014, the slogan was "Take down Wall Street." Today, as your industry scale continuously expands, with more and more institutional users, and more and more traditional finance beginning to embrace Crypto, you'll find this is actually a process of integration. During this integration process, some countries and some regulators are ahead, saying, "I understand what it is, I understand its significance for the financial system." Today, they might let some people try and innovate first. Whether in Hong Kong, companies like Futu and Tiger already simultaneously hold stock assets and Crypto assets; in the US, companies like Robinhood also have many Crypto assets and traditional stock assets.

Binance might not just want to tie itself to Crypto or so-called stock assets. We recently listed some commodities, including crude oil, gold, silver, etc. The trading volume of commodities on our platform already accounts for a very high proportion in the traditional scale. They might now also feel we are a threat; they might also shout "Take down Crypto."

But in the longer-term future, when you want to become financial infrastructure, you shouldn't care too much about whether you are Crypto or TradFi, because when we label ourselves, labeling is a process of drawing a circle and confining ourselves. When you break through boundaries and return to the origin, it's about what you have done for financial freedom in this world, what you have done for financial equality, whether you have made the lives of more ordinary people better. It's a very first-principles starting point.

Du Yu: You mentioned the first-principles starting point earlier, which is very good and important, but sometimes it can be idealized. Because when we actually do things, there is always compromise with reality and regulation. The question I want to ask can be from two perspectives. First, today many traditional mainstream financial institutions are embracing Crypto, including last week when Hong Kong issued two stablecoin licenses, also held by mainstream financial institutions and mainstream banks. But sometimes we have doubts. Mainstream financial institutions are already doing well enough; for them, it's just a small innovation that can succeed or not. Even them doing stablecoins might affect their revenue because they have investment, and the investment might not succeed.

Another perspective is from the outsider, the barbarian, the non-insider internet Crypto native perspective. Initially, everyone felt that talking about Bitcoin, Crypto, these ups and downs... I joined Wanxiang Blockchain in 2015, over ten years now. I always felt that every three or four years, I was embarrassed to tell friends around me that I work in blockchain because often this industry is stigmatized. When you say blockchain, I say we do technology, but then they think it's about trading coins or something, giving you many labels. It's been better in recent years, but talking about Bitcoin still associates with some negative terms.

But with the development over these years, Crypto native companies are also accepting regulation and becoming mainstream-embracing. From your perspective, which path is Binance more inclined towards? Or is Binance originally from Crypto native, making it hard to take that other path? How do you think we can practically achieve the first-principles vision step by step?

He Yi: The path we are walking today has been walked by the internet once before. When the entire internet first emerged in Silicon Valley, there was a very heavy "hippie culture." In that era, many also thought those people doing internet, doing technology were geeks, were freaks. But in that era, the internet developed into extremely different branches. Those going left went to the dark web, absolute freedom; those going right became Google, Amazon, becoming commercial companies serving more ordinary people globally.

If you ask me where Binance will go, we will definitely and unwaveringly go towards being a commercial company serving the masses. But at the same time, when we serve the masses, technological innovation is still very important, whether blockchain technology or AI technology. Often, people feel the stigmatization and public opinion of the crypto circle are normal because it's a new thing. If everyone understood it, if there were no controversy, how could there be so much hardship, challenge, and continuous innovation? If we look back to when we went to internet cafes as kids, my mom almost wanted to break my legs.

When we see today that blockchain is already being embraced with a 180-degree turn by Wall Street and traditional finance, it precisely shows this industry is becoming more and more mature, and the early红利 of this industry is becoming less and less. When early红利 decrease, people's complaints actually increase. For example, people ask why isn't Bitcoin continuing to fall? That way I can't buy the dip. Why isn't Bitcoin always rising? That's because the industry's early红利 period is over. When the early红利 period is over, it enters the so-called成熟期. To cross the chasm means all products must truly have value and落地.

I greatly respect many professional technical experts in the industry, but I often ask them one question: What is your technology used for? What problems can it solve? Is anyone willing to pay for it? I remember we discussed this topic in the same setting last year. The essence of business remains consistent in cognition. But I think there is no end to technological innovation and continuous iteration.

Du Yu: Over the past two years in the industry, what people talk about more and more is no longer technology. To some extent, technology has reached a bottleneck; the current technology is sufficient for most businesses. What we need to study more now is existing technology. There are many technologies on Web3, Layer1, Layer2. How can they be used by everyone? How can they change people's lives? How can we gradually build applications? This is very important. You also mentioned that this industry is gradually entering the mainstream. This year's Hong Kong Web3 Festival, or what we have persisted in doing over the past few years, is to attract more mainstream industries, to let mainstream industries see Web3 and Crypto as good tools to help mainstream industries go further.