CZ says Buy-and-Hold is not for every token after a response from the trader

CZ defended buy-and-hold as his personal strategy, saying critics twisted his words and ignored the need for careful coin selection.

Former Binance CEO Changpeng “CZ” Zhao has defended his long-standing buy-and-hold stance after critics accused him of misleading retailers and promoting harmful market behavior.

The advice has sparked a fierce debate, showing how the crypto entrepreneur’s words continue to influence sentiment and gain attention even without a formal role at Binance.

Buy-and-Hold comments provide responses and clarifications

Zhao’s latest comments followed an earlier post on January 25 in which he said There were few trading strategies that were better than buy-and-hold. He added that this is his own approach, while emphasizing that it was not financial advice.

The post drew criticism from users who claimed that blanket buy-and-hold posts ignore the high failure rate of crypto projects.

The Binance co-founder followed this up on January 28 with clarifications: noticing that the advice “obviously does not apply to every coin” and suggested his comments were distorted by fear, uncertainty and doubt.

He also compared crypto to previous technology cycles, in which most startups failed while a small number made big profits. “If you ‘buy and hold’ all the crypto ever created, you know how your portfolio will perform,” CZ said, arguing that selection is important and investors should research projects rather than buying everything listed on an exchange.

Furthermore, the 48-year-old pushed back against claims that exchanges should only list assets with almost certain success. In response to a Chinese-language post, he asked whether Nasdaq should have listed only the top Internet companies in 1990, noting that future winners were impossible to predict at the time. He added that giving early-stage projects a chance doesn’t mean investors should buy them.

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Old accusations return as supporters and critics clash

The debate widened as long-standing accusations against Zhao resurfaced. Recently, trader StrongHedge called CZ “crypto’s biggest scammer” in a long thread on Crypto podcaster Leonidas echoed the criticism: accusatory CZ to withdraw large amounts of money from the market and to encourage others to expose him.

However, these claims reflect opinions on social media and have not been proven in court outside of Zhao’s previous plea deal.

Others defended the crypto personality. User Zafer Erel counteracted that CZ had helped onboard millions of users, frozen scam-related funds, and donated to disaster relief and research rather than making off with customers’ assets.

The clash came shortly after Zhao warned traders not to take his jokes as investment signals. In a Jan. 13 post, he said meme coins inspired by his offhand comments would likely end in losses, a message that once again divided Crypto Twitter between those who blamed the influencers and those who questioned the exchange practices.

Overall, the divide highlights a core tension in crypto: the philosophy of permissionless open listing versus the call for stricter quality gates to filter out potential scams.