Pot, Meet Kettle: CZ Dismisses AI Tokens After Riding the Hype Wave to Billions

By CryptoCaster Editorial | April 30, 2025

With all due respect, when Changpeng Zhao (CZ)—the billionaire founder of Binance—calls most AI tokens “largely useless,” people tend to take notice. But perhaps that attention should come with a healthy dose of skepticism.

Stay in the know on crypto by frequently visiting Crypto News Today

Because if there’s one thing CZ’s fortune and the very foundation of early crypto teaches us, it’s this: Utility often follows speculation—not the other way around.

So when a man who built his empire in a Wild West era of unregulated ICOs and meme mania dismisses the latest speculative wave, you have to ask:
Is this a valid critique… or a thinly veiled power play by a legacy kingmaker?

CryptoCaster Quick Check:

⚖️ The Irony of CZ’s Critique

Let’s not forget: in 2017, Binance launched at the height of the ICO boom, when whitepapers were scribbled in cafés, codebases were forked from GitHub in minutes, and billion-dollar valuations were handed out like candy at DevCon. It was a chaotic, messy, and often scam-ridden moment in blockchain history—but it was also the Petri dish of innovation that birthed the likes of Uniswap, Chainlink, and Binance itself.

CZ didn’t just survive that chaos—he thrived in it. He capitalized on it.

So for him to now call out AI tokens for a lack of tangible utility is… rich. Especially since many AI-token projects are in the same nascent, experimental, and open-ended phase that characterized early crypto.

🤖 Are AI Tokens Really Useless?

No doubt, many AI-themed crypto projects are weak on fundamentals. But so were most ICOs in 2017. So are many meme coins today. But here’s the paradox: speculation can act as liquidity for innovation.

In that sense, AI tokens are Web3’s venture capital, distributed across millions of wallets instead of behind the velvet rope of Sand Hill Road.

Some AI token projects are building real systems:

• Fetch.ai is working on autonomous agent networks.
• Ocean Protocol is tokenizing data for AI model training.
• Numerai is creating incentive structures for AI-based hedge funds.

To dismiss the entire category as “useless” is to ignore how these technologies often mature: slowly, nonlinearly, and with a lot of noise before the signal.

🏦 Is the Crypto Establishment Gatekeeping?

CZ’s statement isn’t happening in a vacuum. As crypto matures, a new class of elites—the same type the original crypto ethos was meant to disrupt—has emerged. These are the billionaires, the early exchange founders, and the large L1 developers who now have the platform, capital, and influence to shape public opinion.

When they talk, regulators lean in. When they frown, retail investors pull out. When they endorse or disapprove, it can swing entire sectors.

So CZ calling out AI tokens isn’t just an opinion—it’s an act of market framing.
And that begs the question:
Is the “useless” label a defense mechanism from someone whose legacy lies outside the AI frontier?

⏳ A History Lesson in Disruption

Let’s take a step back.

• Bitcoin was mocked as “magic internet money.”
• Ethereum was ridiculed for hosting a thousand scams.
• NFTs were seen as glorified JPEGs—until they enabled digital property rights at scale.

In each case, the utility wasn’t obvious up front—it emerged through iteration and market experimentation.

Why would AI tokens be any different?

They’re messy. They’re early. But that’s how disruption often looks in real time.

🧠 What’s Really Behind the Fear?

There’s a larger story here: Crypto’s new wave is colliding with AI’s ascension, and few understand both worlds deeply. The intersection—where blockchain verifies, pays, or coordinates AI agents—is still forming.

But the possibility is massive. And threatening, if you’re entrenched in a previous wave of innovation.

So CZ’s critique might not be hypocrisy as much as it is fear of losing relevance in a space that’s evolving beyond centralized exchanges and smart contract tokens into a new paradigm of autonomous systems, data economies, and on-chain compute.

🧭 Final Thoughts

AI tokens may be clunky and inflated right now. So were NFTs. So were ICOs.
But to call them useless—especially by someone who rose during the most speculative phase of crypto—isn’t just unfair. It’s disingenuous.

CZ is brilliant, influential, and undeniably pivotal to the blockchain story. But when he throws shade at the next big thing from atop his empire of speculative riches, it’s worth asking:

Is this a warning… or a power play?

Either way, history tells us to bet on the mess—because that’s often where the magic starts.

---

CryptoCaster™ steadfastly upholds its dedication to keeping our global audience well-informed about the ongoing adoption of blockchain technology, as well as the latest hurdles emerging from government-controlled fiat financial systems, banking conglomerates, and other major institutional entities. Our commitment extends to providing comprehensive updates and insights into how these developments affect the broader landscape of digital currencies, the potential regulatory impacts on blockchain innovations, and the evolving dynamics between traditional financial institutions and emerging cryptocurrency markets. By staying at the forefront of these critical issues, CryptoCaster™ aims to empower our audience with the knowledge needed to navigate the complex interplay of technology, regulation, and finance in the modern world.  

---

If this article brought you clarity, insight, or value—support the work that made it possible.

At CryptoCaster, we report on Web3, crypto markets, and institutional finance with no billionaire owners, no shareholders, and no hidden agenda. While mainstream media bends toward Elon Musk, BlackRock, and JPMorgan narratives, we stay focused on what matters: truth, transparency, and the public interest.

We don’t just cover the headlines—we investigate the power structures behind them. From FTX and Ripple to the quiet push for CBDCs, we bring fearless reporting that isn’t filtered by corporate interests.

CryptoCaster is 100% paywall-free. Always has been. To keep it that way, we depend on readers like you.
If you believe independent crypto journalism matters, please contribute—starting at just $1 in Bitcoin or Ether. Wallet addresses are below.

Your support keeps us free, bold, and accountable to no one but you.

Thank you,
Kristin Steinbeck
Editor, CryptoCaster

---

---

CRYPTOCASTER HEATMAP