The bitcoin market will continue to experience price corrections and volatility, but compared with other assets of a similar market capitalization, bitcoin is actually not exceptionally volatile despite its recent price weakness, said Changpeng Zhao, co-founder of leading cryptocurrency exchange Binance, in an exclusive interview with Presence.
Bitcoin reached an all-time high (ATH) of approximately US$126,000 before entering a prolonged correction. Bitcoin prices have since fallen substantially from those record levels and are currently trading around US$63,000 to US$64,000 as of publishing time.
Bitcoin prices: bull-run or bubble?
On bitcoin’s dramatic price growth followed by its subsequent correction, Zhao, also popularly known as “CZ”, told Presence: “When that kind of price rises, a 20% correction is very, very normal, especially considering a lot of new guys coming in, buying at the new higher prices.”
“They are not the sort of what we call ‘strong hands’ holders that are in this for the long term. Many of them are for short term gains, and then as soon as they see any price drop, they rush to sell. They’re not yet the core believers,” he added.
According to Zhao, volatility exists in every market, with price discovery and mass psychology both playing important roles.
“Everyone wants to rush in, and then the price goes up, and then somebody says, ‘Okay, now the price is high enough’, they want to cash out a bit and they start selling. Sometimes that triggers a cycle and then everyone wants to sell,” Zhao said. “We’ll continue to see corrections and volatility going forward, but compared to other similar market size market cap assets, bitcoin is actually not that volatile now…. Bitcoin’s volatility is actually lower than, for example, even Tesla’s. Tesla is going up really a lot. And then they have corrections, of course, then there’s volatility.”
The total global cryptocurrency market capitalization now stands in the trillions of dollars, with bitcoin alone maintaining a market capitalization of well above US$1 trillion, according to crypto data aggregator CoinGecko. Bitcoin’s market capitalization at its recent peak placed it among the world’s largest financial assets.
Bitcoin’s price movements over the past year have continued to attract immense interest from institutional as well as retail investors. Binance has been seeing a “massive” number of users and elevated trading activity during periods of strong bitcoin price movement. “Everything is in high gear,” Zhao said.
A combination of factors, particularly fiscal and monetary policies adopted by governments and central banks, have continued to influence demand for bitcoin.
“2026, that was a pretty crazy year. Economic uncertainty remained elevated globally, alongside continued changes in monetary policy,” Zhao said. “So basically, if you’re holding fiat currencies, your purchasing power can be devalued over time if you keep holding onto it.”
Bitcoin buying momentum has also been supported by institutions and corporations adding cryptocurrency exposure to their portfolios. MicroStrategy, now Strategy, was one of the earliest major corporate adopters, originally establishing bitcoin as its primary treasury reserve asset. The move helped establish a model for publicly traded companies seeking direct exposure to bitcoin.
“We’re also seeing a lot of new institutions coming in this round. So I think now, especially given the high profile institutions coming in the U.S., worldwide, there are many institutions coming in now,” Zhao said. “They corporate treasurers have to manage their corporate treasuries. They’re now allocating into bitcoin or other cryptocurrencies.”
“And then this kicks off a race, that’s the institutional race right now that we’re seeing in North America and also in the rest of the world. And then once the price starts to go up, all the retail guys flood in as well, because everyone wants a piece of the rising value.”
CZ’s predictions for bitcoin for 2027
With so much institutional capital potentially entering bitcoin and other digital assets, the question then is, where will bitcoin prices go from here?
Zhao expects bitcoin prices to increase significantly over the longer term. Based on bitcoin trading around US$63,000 to US$64,000 today, another major expansion cycle could potentially place the asset well into six-figure territory during 2027.
Zhao’s bullish outlook follows similar calls made by analysts and institutional market participants, many of whom have continued to publish six-figure long-term targets for bitcoin.
Market strategists have also repeatedly argued that bitcoin could reach substantially higher valuations if it continues to capture a larger share of the global store-of-value market. However, bitcoin’s previous climb to an all-time high above US$126,000 and subsequent decline toward US$63,000 has once again demonstrated how quickly sentiment can change.
Bitcoin’s rapid rises can become unsustainable in the near term and vulnerable to setbacks. Even when long-term targets remain bullish, periods of extreme appreciation can provide investors with opportunities to reduce exposure and take profits.
All-time high volumes and Binance’s struggle to keep up
Bitcoin’s periods of extreme market activity have also resulted in major spikes in traffic for cryptocurrency exchanges handling buy and sell transactions, placing additional pressure on their infrastructure. Binance and other major exchanges like Coinbase and Kraken have experienced periods of unusually heavy activity as cryptocurrency trading volumes surge.
According to Zhao, Binance has spent years working on scaling the exchange’s infrastructure “to be ready for the next wave.” But he admits that exchanges can always do better.
“To be very honest, even today, we have expanded so much capacity, but we’re still struggling a little bit,” Zhao said.
“There’s a few different parts. There’s a system which has got to stay up when there’s peak volume, and we’re seeing massive volumes on relatively small moves of bitcoin. So the volumes on the systems can grow much more exponentially than bitcoin prices,” he added.
“We’ve done a lot of work over the years, but the system’s not always production-tested at those volumes.” Given the complexity of the system with many moving parts, Zhao added, “we actually had to see the new volume coming in and then adjust as we grow.”
Customer support, on the other hand, has historically been more difficult to scale. After all, a large portion of customer support at cryptocurrency exchanges like Binance continues to involve people.
“You can’t just hire a 10x team before the volume gets there and everybody will be bored, and that’s demoralizing. But when the volume hits, you want to hire 10x people, it doesn’t happen that quickly. So we’re struggling a little bit on that front,” Zhao said. “We’re making a lot more automated tools to help users, etc. But it’s going to take some time.”
CZ predicts further corporate bitcoin adoption
The trend toward institutional adoption of cryptocurrencies, particularly bitcoin, is likely to continue accelerating in 2026 and 2027, especially within corporate treasury strategies. Zhao predicts that broader adoption could “push the price of bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies up quite significantly.”
Zhao said he expects major corporations to increasingly consider bitcoin and other digital assets as part of their treasury strategies.
“I wouldn’t be surprised if more major companies announce that they own bitcoin,” Zhao said. “And that’ll be really good for the industry. I think it’s going to happen sooner or later, maybe this year, maybe next year. Who knows?”
Looking toward the more distant future, Zhao believes crypto will “be everywhere” within the coming decades, and that the overall market capitalization could become dramatically larger than where it stands today.
“But of course, there’s also a chance we enter another crypto winter, I think the chances are smaller,” Zhao said. “It’s very hard to put accurate numbers on those, but we are prepared for both scenarios, so we’ll just see where the market takes us.”