Zhao Changpeng: The lack of transaction privacy is the last major obstacle for cryptocurrency to become a mainstream payment method

According to FinanceFeeds, Binance founder Changpeng Zhao stated at the 2026 World Economic Forum that the lack of trading privacy is the last major obstacle for cryptocurrencies to become mainstream payment methods.

Although issues of high fees and slow speeds have been significantly improved over the past decade through technologies like Layer 2, the completely transparent and permanently traceable nature of transactions on public chains makes it difficult for ordinary consumers and businesses to accept them for everyday payments.

If a company pays its employees' salaries using cryptocurrency on-chain, it is easy to see everyone's salary level with just a click on the sending address. When businesses make payments to suppliers, they inadvertently expose their entire balance, lists of other suppliers, and cash flow details to competitors, which is commercially unacceptable.

Changpeng Zhao proposed a solution concept called "invisible rails," utilizing blockchain as backend infrastructure to provide faster and cheaper settlements for existing payment providers, allowing users to avoid direct contact with wallet addresses or private keys. Developing privacy protection technologies to hide sensitive data while maintaining compliance and verifiability.