In a Nov. 22 YouTube video, Cardano founder Charles Hoskinson reflected on the news that Binance CEO Changpeng “CZ” Zhao had stepped down from the exchange. Hoskinson claimed that the event represented “the end of an era.” He argued that entrepreneurs will need to comply with regulations or else develop completely permissionless protocols that can’t be regulated.
In the video, Hoskinson claimed that CZ was “part of a class of entrepreneurs in the cryptocurrency space who really epitomized the move fast, grow and innovate side of things.” In the early days of crypto, Bitcoin (BTC) traders used spreadsheets to make trades and sent funds to buy the cryptocurrency via PayPal (NASDAQ:PYPL), Hoskinson said. This period represented the “first wave” of innovation in the space. CZ and Binance came in the “second wave” in 2017 and became a “Leviathan in our industry.”