When 48-year-old Changpeng Zhao (CZ) entered a jam-packed hall in the sweltering heat of Dubai on Wednesday, he was greeted with thunderous applause by hundreds of onlookers as he made a rare public appearance.

The crowd that has assembled to listen to CZ at the Binance Fire Side chat on Day 1 of TOKEN2049 Dubai, wasn’t just an ordinary group of crypto lovers; they were some of the very best from the industry-—CEOs, entrepreneurs, media moguls, coders, developers, and influencers-—all hooked to crypto’s favorite poster boy.

And CZ didn’t disappoint either as he spoke on a range of topics, discussing the future roadmap of decentralized finance (DeFi), crypto and AI in today’s age, emphasizing the need to bring the world closer…