A recent statement from an XRP Ledger (XRPL) developer suggests that XRP could be the key to an early retirement shortcut. Unlike steady paychecks or slow-growing investments in traditional assets, cryptocurrencies have the ability to create generational wealth rapidly, due to their penchant for sudden and explosive price moves. Among the thousands of digital assets on the market, the developer highlighted the token as his primary choice for investors seeking substantial returns, even sharing strategies for how the coin can help them retire in a few years. 

XRP Emerges As Shortcut To Early Retirement

A DropCoin XRPL developer, identified as ‘Bird’ on X, announced on Thursday, January 22, that buying and holding XRP at current prices could help investors retire within a few years. The bold claim quickly caught the attention of many in the crypto community, with some asking the developers to elaborate on the strategies involved and the expected timeline for achieving such wealth. 

Related Reading: XRP Price Obliteration Is Not A Matter Of If, New All-Time Highs Are Coming

Not stopping there, Bird claimed that investing in the token could eliminate the need for a job, suggesting that long-term investors may eventually rely on the potential profits from their holdings as a primary source of income. His statements were in response to a post by Watcher.Guru, which the developer directly referenced to support his optimistic long-term outlook. 

In that post, Watcher Guru quoted a statement reportedly made by Binance’s founder ChangPeng Zhao, who also agreed that holding crypto assets over time could make jobs unnecessary and allow investors to retire sooner than planned. The Ledger developer shared a screenshot of Zhao making similar remarks about Artificial Intelligence, suggesting that the Binance founder views both crypto and AI as powerful tools for achieving long-term financial freedom. 

A crypto community member who responded to Bird’s post questioned how long an investor has to hold XRP before retiring early. The developer answered humorously that it could be held indefinitely, adding that some investors could reach early retirement this year, while others may need a few more years. He emphasized that the timeline ultimately depends on how many tokens an investor holds.  

How High The Altcoin Could Rise To Enable Early Retirement

Addressing questions from the crypto community members, Bird shared his outlook on how high he believes XRP’s price could rise, helping investors achieve early retirement. He predicted that within the next few years, the cryptocurrency could rise to $100 and beyond—a significant jump from its current market price of around $1.90. 

Related Reading: How Donald Trump’s Latest Crypto Move Will Boost Demand For XRP

The Ledger developer suggested that reaching $100 could be a gradual process for the altcoin, forecasting an initial rally to $10 in the First Quarter (Q1) of 2026. Notably, Bird’s remarks reflect a classic buy-the-dip and hold strategy, where investors accumulate during downtrends and patiently wait for the price to rally explosively before taking profits.

Binance founder and former CEO Changpeng Zhao (CZ) has pushed back against growing scrutiny surrounding his relationship with President Donald Trump, saying his ties to the president and his family have been widely misunderstood following Trump’s decision to grant him a pardon last year.

CZ Rejects Allegations Of Binance’s Political Links

Attention on Zhao intensified after President Trump issued a pardon in October 2025, a move that prompted renewed criticism from Democratic lawmakers and fueled questions about Binance’s alleged political and business connections. 

Addressing the controversy in a recent interview with CNBC, Zhao said claims of a business relationship with the Trump family are inaccurate. “There’s no business relationship whatsoever,” Zhao stated. The former executive added that the narrative surrounding the pardon and Binance’s alleged ties to Trump had been “misconstrued.”

Much of the scrutiny centers on Binance’s connection to the Trump-linked decentralized finance (DeFi) venture World Liberty Financial (WLFI). 

That connection traces back to a $2 billion investment made in March 2025 by MGX, a state‑owned firm based in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. MGX invested in Binance using USD1, a stablecoin created by World Liberty Financial.

Zhao emphasized that the payment method was chosen by the investor, not Binance. “MGX is the investor. They choose USD1,” he said. “My request to them was they pay us in crypto. I don’t want to deal with banks, really.” 

According to Zhao, the use of the venture’s USD1 stablecoin has been wrongly interpreted as evidence of a deeper relationship. “Many people misconstrued that,” he added.

WLFI Push Back On Political Influence Claims

In a statement, WLFI spokesperson David Wachsman said the company played no role in the pardon process. “As we have stated many times, WLFI is not a political organization and had zero role in the pardon process,” Wachsman said. “To imply otherwise is dangerous and false.”

Trump himself downplayed any personal connection in a November interview with CBS’s 60 Minutes. “I have no idea who he is,” the president said of Zhao. Trump added that he had been told Zhao was “a victim, just like I was and just like many other people, of a vicious, horrible group of people in the Biden administration.”

Additional attention has focused on Binance’s lobbying efforts in Washington. NBC News reported during the week of the pardon that Binance had hired Checkmate Government Relations, a lobbying firm led by Charles McDowell, who is a friend of Donald Trump Jr. 

According to disclosures, the firm was paid $450,000 to lobby the White House and the Treasury Department on matters including “executive relief” and digital asset‑related financial services policy.

Zhao denied that any lobbying effort was connected to his pardon. “There is a lot of media saying that there is some deal in place to get me the pardon,” he told CNBC in Davos. “As far as I know, that does not exist at all.”

Binance’s former CEO also said he has never spoken directly with President Trump. “The closest that I got to him was today when he was doing the Board of Peace session,” Zhao said. “I was in the audience, about 30 to 40 feet away from him.”

At the time of writing, Binance Coin (BNB) was trading at $893, having recorded a 4% drop over the previous week. However, it is one of the few cryptocurrencies to have retained gains year-to-date, with an increase of 30% in that time. 

Featured image from OpenArt, chart from TradingView.com 

Changpeng Zhao-backed YZi Labs has announced an investment in BitGo as the crypto custodian made its debut on the New York Stock Exchange. “BitGo has maintained a hack-free security record for over a decade, a testament to the technical foundation,”…

Founder of Binance Changpeng “CZ” Zhao has stated that several governments are currently engaged in deliberations on tokenizing their assets on blockchain networks.

In a panel at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Zhao said that he is negotiating with over a dozen governments to tokenize their state-owned assets, as the next big step in crypto adoption after exchanges and stablecoins.

.@cz_binance on what’s working in crypto – and what’s next – at @wef Davos

What's proven at scale: exchanges & stablecoins.

The next frontier:
> State-level tokenization of assets
> Crypto as the invisible payment rail
> AI agents transacting autonomously, using crypto as… pic.twitter.com/PG3eoNBMRV

— YZi Labs (@yzilabs) January 22, 2026

Zhao positioned tokenization as the next stage of crypto adoption following what he characterized as the initial two industries that have already been put to the test on a global scale: exchanges and stablecoins.

Tokenization Shifts Upstream as Governments Target Liquidity and Control

CZ noted that most other crypto sectors remain comparatively small or experimental.

Tokenization, however, is now being approached by governments as a way to directly capture financial upside from their own assets, rather than outsourcing value creation to private intermediaries.

He explained that governments want to tokenize large asset bases, realize gains earlier through improved liquidity and market access, and reinvest those proceeds into domestic market development and infrastructure.

The discussion places state-led tokenization in a different category from earlier private-sector efforts to tokenize real-world assets.

National assets such as government bonds, commodities like oil or gold, and public real estate can be represented as blockchain-based tokens that enable fractional ownership, continuous trading, faster settlement and automated payments through smart contracts.

For governments, this structure also offers transparency and direct control over issuance and distribution, while keeping financial returns within the public sector.

Zhao’s comments come as several countries and financial institutions are already moving in this direction.

Pakistan’s finance ministry announced plans this month to tokenize up to $2 billion in domestic sovereign debt as part of a broader effort to modernize public debt markets and attract retail participation.

In Europe, the DLT Pilot Regime of the European Union already offers a regulatory framework to trade and settle tokenized securities, and the UK already appoint a dedicated official to support the country’s transition to blockchain-based financial infrastructure.

UK appoints digital lead to coordinate financial market tokenization, signaling institutional interest in blockchain-based infrastructure.#uk #tokenizationhttps://t.co/SAU9U8go3N

— Cryptonews.com (@cryptonews) October 8, 2025

Tokenization Gains Ground as NYSE and DTCC Move Forward

Traditional market infrastructure is also gaining steam with the NYSE on January 19 confirming that it is in the process of building a platform to facilitate the trade of tokenized stocks and exchange-traded funds with 24/7 trading and on-chain settlement, pending regulatory approval.

Zhao publicly welcomed the move, calling it bullish for crypto and exchanges.

This is bullish for crypto, and crypto exchanges. https://t.co/zqCOlbBW7V

— CZ BNB (@cz_binance) January 19, 2026

Regulatory signals in the United States have also shifted as the Securities and Exchange Commission In December issued a rare no-action letter to the Depository Trust and Clearing Corporation, allowing it to proceed with a controlled tokenization program covering US Treasuries, ETFs and Russell 1000 equities.

The SEC has given a key green light to the Depository Trust and Clearing Corporation’s (DTCC) push into blockchain-based markets. #SEC #Cryptohttps://t.co/LOvN1BzjZ1

— Cryptonews.com (@cryptonews) December 12, 2025

The service is scheduled to launch in late 2026 and will operate on approved blockchains, with the DTCC emphasizing that tokenized assets will carry the same legal rights and investor protections as traditional securities.

Zhao also linked the rise of tokenization to other structural trends as he highlighted payments as another area where crypto is already functioning at scale, particularly through stablecoins.

He further noted that the next stage would be “invisible payments,” where users transact in fiat while crypto rails operate in the background.

Market data suggests tokenization is already gaining traction as tokenized gold products added nearly $2.8 billion in net value in 2025, with total market capitalization rising 177% year over year and trading volumes reaching levels comparable to major global gold investment vehicles.

Analysts see this as evidence that on-chain markets are beginning to absorb liquidity that traditionally flowed through conventional financial products.

The post Binance Founder CZ Confirms Government Talks to Tokenize National Assets On-Chain appeared first on Cryptonews.

Binance founder Changpeng Zhao (CZ) believes that the Bitcoin price could still reach $200,000. This bullish prediction comes after the cryptocurrency has seen years of strong performance, climbing past $126,000 and setting a new all-time high in 2025. With ETFs driving demand, whales accumulating, and global adoption steadily rising, a surge to $200,000 seems inevitable for the crypto founder. 

Binance Founder Predicts Bitcoin Price Could Hit $200,000

Bitcoin spent the past few years in a major uptrend, reaching multiple ATHs after the launch of Spot Bitcoin ETFs in January 2024. Following this, adoption and demand for the cryptocurrency skyrocketed, and for months, its price continued to appreciate with minimal pullbacks. 

In 2025, Bitcoin hit a peak above $126,000. While many anticipated this achievement, some raised doubts, especially critics like Peter Schiff. Against this backdrop, the recent statement by CZ foresees another significant milestone for BTC that some analysts still believe won’t happen, at least not for another couple of years. 

Although Bitcoin has since shed a significant portion of its gains since its peak, the Binance founder has boldly stated that BTC reaching $200,000 is “the most obvious thing in the world.” He emphasized that it was only a matter of time before the Bitcoin price rises to this level, representing almost double its current ATH. While CZ acknowledged that the exact timing of the projected rally remains uncertain, his confidence in Bitcoin’s long-term outlook remains unwavering.

Notably, CZ’s bullish prediction for Bitcoin comes as the US regulatory landscape continues to evolve, aiming to create a safer, potentially bullish environment for digital assets. With bills like the CLARITY Act under consideration, the crypto market could benefit from clearer guidelines, increased institutional adoption, and greater investor confidence. Although the bill was initially scheduled for a vote by the US Senate Banking Committee on January 15, the decision was ultimately delayed, leaving the timeline for regulatory clarity uncertain.

Related Reading: Why The $2.9 Billion Bitcoin Whale Buy Could Spell Doom For The Market

In addition to his bullish Bitcoin forecast, CZ has also predicted that a crypto “Super Cycle” could be approaching. The Binance founder pointed to recent developments involving the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) as a key factor behind his optimism. He highlighted a report on X, revealing that the SEC had officially removed crypto from its 2026 priority risk list, a move that could provide the industry with greater regulatory relief and create more room for future bullish growth. 

Analyst Forecasts $200,000 BTC In 2026

Sharing a similar outlook to CZ, a popular crypto analyst, Rekt Fencer, who has over 336,000 followers on X, has also predicted that Bitcoin could surge to $200,000. Despite the broader crypto market still recovering from a prolonged bear market, the analyst remains confident in BTC’s near-term prospects, noting that the cryptocurrency could replicate its explosive growth seen during the 2020 bull cycle. 

Unlike CZ, who has not provided a specific timeline for his $200,000 forecast, Rekt Fencer believes that BTC could hit this level before the end of 2026. His price chart even points to a potential target of $240,000, which he suggests Bitcoin could reach without major dumps. 

Bitcoin Magazine

Binance Founder CZ Says the 4-Year Bitcoin Cycle Is Over — Predicts a Potential Bitcoin Supercycle

At the Bitcoin MENA conference, Binance founder Changpeng Zhao (CZ) offered an pretty expansive view of Bitcoin’s evolving role in global finance.  

While he touched on personal experiences, from his legal challenges in the United States to his pardon from President Donald Trump, his remarks consistently returned to the trajectory and potential of Bitcoin.

Speaking alongside BTC Inc CEO Brandon Green, CZ described the current adoption cycle as distinct from previous waves. While earlier cycles were dominated by retail investors, this cycle reflects significant institutional engagement. 

Bitcoin’s institutional adoption 

From Bitcoin ETFs to corporate strategic reserves, Wall Street and large financial institutions are participating in the crypto ecosystem. 

“We have seen more institutions come in than probably previous cycles,” CZ said. This bridging between grassroots movements and institutional finance, he argued, positions Bitcoin for broader integration into the global financial system.

The conversation highlighted the inherent unpredictability of Bitcoin’s adoption path. CZ sees potential for growth through integration with traditional payment infrastructure. 

Tools like crypto cards, where users pay in cryptocurrency but merchants receive fiat, allow demand to grow on the user side and lay the groundwork for more widespread adoption. 

Stablecoins, he noted, will also play a key role in facilitating transactions without undermining Bitcoin’s investment appeal.

CZ’s take on Bitcoin’s 4-year cycle 

CZ also offered perspective on how macroeconomic conditions and policy shifts can influence Bitcoin’s trajectory. 

While the four-year cycle has long guided expectations for bull and bear markets, he suggested that external forces, including government monetary policies, may now have equal or greater influence. 

CZ even said that bitcoin and crypto may be entering a “super cycle”

JUST IN: Binance founder CZ says the 4-year #Bitcoin cycle might be dead, and we may see a supercycle pic.twitter.com/rl4Ie6JoQQ

— Bitcoin Magazine (@BitcoinMagazine) December 9, 2025

He pointed to potential U.S. rate cuts and quantitative easing as factors that could drive liquidity into crypto markets, suggesting the next cycle could diverge from historical patterns.

Institutionalization of Bitcoin, however, does not replace the grassroots origins of the network. CZ emphasized that retail holders remain the majority and that the international nature of Bitcoin is integral to its identity.

He described the institutional participation as complementary, not transformative, to the global movement that has propelled Bitcoin from a niche technology to a widely recognized asset class.

CZ’s personal journey

Throughout the discussion, CZ reflected on his personal journey, from ‘growing up on a farm in China’ to serving jail time, all while being intertwined closely with Bitcoin’s evolution. 

He shared his experiences facing U.S. regulatory scrutiny, including potential imprisonment, and his eventual pardon by President Trump. The pardon drew criticism from Democrats like Sen. Elizabeth Warren, who called it corruption, while the Trump administration framed it as correcting an “overreach” by the Biden administration against crypto.

Even as he stepped back from day-to-day operations at Binance, CZ has remained engaged in advancing the industry. He has focused on advising governments on how to regulate crypto. 

Beyond regulation, CZ has turned attention to education and innovation. He founded Giggle Academy, a free, gamified, digital education platform that now reaches approximately 90,000 children, emphasizing accessibility and positive societal impact. 

CZ’s reflections on legacy and impact returned repeatedly to Bitcoin. While he admires other industry figures, like Michael Saylor, for their single-minded focus on Bitcoin, CZ sees his own role as complementary: attempting to foster innovation across multiple chains while championing Bitcoin’s primacy. 

“Bitcoin itself is great. It is the global reserve currency in crypto, probably soon in the world,” he said. 

MICHAEL SAYLOR JUST HAD A MEETING WITH CZ AT BITCOIN MENA

₿ULLISH pic.twitter.com/si6FuJAIJD

— Bitcoin MENA Conference (@bitcoinmenaconf) December 9, 2025

In closing, CZ reiterated that his goal remains clear: driving adoption and awareness of crypto worldwide. Whether through institutional engagement, policy advising, or fostering innovation, he positions himself as a conduit between the grassroots and the broader financial ecosystem.

At the time of writing, Bitcoin is skyrocketing towards $93,000.

This post Binance Founder CZ Says the 4-Year Bitcoin Cycle Is Over — Predicts a Potential Bitcoin Supercycle first appeared on Bitcoin Magazine and is written by Micah Zimmerman.