First face-to-face meeting after years of online collaboration
Changpeng Zhao, better known as CZ in crypto circles, recently posted a photo on social media showing him with Michael Saylor. This was their first in-person meeting, which happened at Binance Blockchain Week in Dubai.
I think it’s interesting how these two have been aligned online for years but never actually met until now. The meeting took place right after Saylor’s keynote presentation at the event. He was there as a speaker, marking his first appearance at a crypto conference in the United Arab Emirates.
Saylor’s Bitcoin presentation and community engagement
During his talk titled “The Undeniable Case for Bitcoin,” Saylor addressed the audience about market volatility. He suggested people shouldn’t fear the ups and downs, pointing instead to Bitcoin’s growing institutional adoption worldwide.
He made some comparisons that caught my attention—comparing Bitcoin’s trading power and energy use to major companies like Google and Microsoft, and even to the U.S. Navy. That’s quite a range of comparisons, but perhaps it helps put things in perspective for people.
After his main presentation, Saylor did a live question-and-answer session with the community. It was during this event that he finally got to meet CZ face-to-face.
A relationship built online over years
What’s really interesting to me is how long these two have been connected without meeting. Their relationship goes back to the early 2020s, when both became prominent voices during Bitcoin’s volatile periods.
CZ has been publicly supportive of Saylor’s approach to accumulating Bitcoin through his company. When prices were dropping and people questioned Saylor’s strategy, CZ would often defend him publicly. He’d point to Saylor’s dollar-cost averaging approach as a winning strategy.
Their views have overlapped on several key points over the years. Both have emphasized Bitcoin’s scarcity, its advantages over traditional assets like gold, and its potential role in creating more trustworthy financial systems.
On social media, they’ve frequently shared and amplified each other’s content. This online relationship even turned into actual collaboration in 2025, when both were appointed as advisors to Pakistan’s Crypto Council. They worked together there to help guide the country’s plans for building Bitcoin reserves.
Other notable interactions at the event
Meanwhile, at the same Dubai event, CZ had what’s being described as a “fiery debate” with Peter Schiff, the longtime gold advocate. That exchange has been getting a lot of attention on social media platforms.
CZ had actually joked about this possibility beforehand, suggesting on social media that it would be interesting to put Saylor and Schiff in the same room together. He seemed to anticipate some contrasting viewpoints coming to the surface.
Now, after all these years of online interaction and collaboration, the two finally have their first photo together. It’s one of those moments that shows how the crypto space continues to bring people together, even when they’ve been working in parallel for years.
I find it somewhat surprising they hadn’t met sooner, given their similar positions in the industry and their public support for each other’s work. But then again, the crypto world moves quickly, and people are often connecting digitally first, physically later.
The meeting represents more than just two industry figures shaking hands. It shows how relationships that begin online can develop into real-world partnerships and collaborations. Their work together on Pakistan’s crypto initiatives demonstrates this transition from digital alignment to tangible cooperation.
Perhaps this in-person meeting will lead to more direct collaboration between them in the future. Or maybe it’s simply a natural progression of a relationship that’s been building for years through shared values and public support.
