Changpeng Zhao said the lack of privacy in onchain transactions remains one of the biggest obstacles to mainstream crypto payment adoption.
The Binance co-founder argued that full transaction transparency discourages businesses from paying salaries or expenses in digital assets because sensitive financial data can be easily traced.
“Lack of Privacy may be the missing link for crypto payments adoption,”
Zhao said, adding that anyone can see how much employees are paid by examining a company’s onchain wallet address.
Zhao also previously told investor Chamath Palihapitiya that public blockchain records pose physical security risks, as large visible balances may make individuals or firms targets.
Industry participants say transaction metadata can reveal trade secrets, business relationships and financial health indicators, potentially undermining corporate negotiations or exposing firms to fraud.
Avidan Abitbol, formerly of the Kaspa project, said enterprises will hesitate to adopt Web3 systems without stronger privacy protections.
Eran Barak, former chief executive of Shielded Technologies, added that advancing AI tools could amplify these risks by analysing public blockchain data to identify targets, increasing the urgency for robust onchain privacy solutions.