In a recent interview with Bloomberg, Changpeng Zhao, Binance CEO, has shared his extreme confidence in crypto industry’s future, despite the ongoing bear market.

He also stated that Binance intends to start off the new year “with a bang” in line with the company’s bullish outlook on the sector.

In his words:

 “2018 has been a tough year in terms of pricing for the cryptocurrency. And we see a lot of projects not making it this year, so its a correction year. But technology will stay, and we wanna kick off 2019 with a bang… So I think the people in the industry are still very confident about the future. So there’s no worries about that.”

Although he admitted that it is impossible to know whether the bear market phase is over, Zhao maintained that the long-term industry — regardless of price movements — is sustained by real applications by actual builders, which he says is the real use case of cryptocurrency.

In spite of the market’s upheavals and uncertainty, he said, Binance is still very aggressive in pursuing its ambitions, to which end the company has set new milestones in the coming year. One of these milestones, Zhao revealed, is a plan to launch its own decentralized exchange next year to allow for more freedom for its users.

Speaking further, he stated that Binance welcomes regulatory involvement within the cryptocurrency space from all governments around the world, as long as there is sufficient clarity to combat the present uncertainty. In his opinion, good and sensible regulations will promote rather than hamper innovation.

When asked about the performance of his personal cryptocurrency asset portfolio valued at $2 billion earlier in the year, he responded saying that while he cannot confirm the current value — owing to the varied composition and minute to minute changes of the portfolio — it has indeed taken a hit in line with the market’s 2018 performance. Despite this, he affirmed that his confidence in the industry remains unchanged.