She is jokingly called "very good at pretending," but she boldly printed this self-deprecating remark on a cultural and creative tote bag and brought it to an industry conference.

As the leader of the global leading cryptocurrency exchange Bitget, Gracy, in her two years as CEO, has steered this 2,000-person ship from "chasing quantity" to "pursuing quality."

From deep cultivation in the Chinese market to global expansion, from being the first to launch the UEX strategy to embrace traditional assets, to going all-in on AI with the entire team to embrace the silicon-based life era, Bitget is rapidly reshaping the trading ecosystem with its fast-paced evolution.

During the Web3 Carnival, we held a deep conversation with Gracy, covering topics from personal opinions and company strategy to family life. Gracy extensively shared Bitget's strategic evolution and business logic for the first time. At the same time, she also shared her transformation from General Manager to CEO. In this period of uncertainty, let's see how this female leader uses her "solitude-focused tranquility" to navigate the "bigger stage." Stripping away the CEO aura, she reveals her softness and resilience as a single mother.

Facing Criticism with Confidence, Embracing "Misunderstanding" on a Cultural and Creative Tote Bag

Q1: You often appear in the Chinese market. In your opinion, what are the areas that Bitget is currently most focused on, and how does the Chinese market differ from other regional markets?

Gracy:

The areas Bitget focuses on are the most active in the entire cryptocurrency industry.

The Chinese market accounts for 25% to 1/3 of the global market share in terms of user scale and trading volume, similar to the U.S. market share. The European English-speaking (EUEN) market is sizable but geographically dispersed, with differences in language and culture among countries, and distinct characteristics between Eastern and Western European markets. In the futures trading sector, some East Asian countries have shown outstanding market performance. However, when looking at the spot market, the core regions mentioned earlier are the main markets, while Latin America, Southeast Asia, and emerging European regions are new areas of business growth.

Having been deeply involved in the industry for over seven years, Bitget's services cover 100+ countries worldwide, with a global operational perspective. Most core team members are of Chinese descent, and I myself grew up in the Chinese-speaking region. Chinese is my mother tongue, and many team members come from traditional finance and Web2 technology industries, so our emphasis on the Chinese market is unquestionable. The Chinese market is our most familiar business area and is also one of the mainstream global markets.

Q2: You have encountered many travel and personal growth posts on Xiaohongshu. How do you balance travel and your CEO duties? What is your favorite travel destination and why?

Gracy:

This is a fun question to discuss. It's nice to talk about things other than work all the time.

New Zealand was my travel destination during last year's National Day holiday. Christmas, National Day, Labor Day, and Chinese New Year are some major core holidays, and many team members choose to take time off. During last year's National Day holiday, I was invited to participate in a local innovation and entrepreneurship competition in New Zealand and give a speech. I also interacted with many local friends, including a friend from my time at MIT who is now a female member of the New Zealand Parliament. She even accompanied me on a tour of the New Zealand Parliament. I am used to engaging in in-depth cross-border travel, with each trip usually lasting five to six days. For my New Zealand trip, I stayed for about seven to eight days, and it felt very profound and fulfilling.

Traveling, for me and for our company, even though we are very busy and are jokingly referred to as the "Huawei of the crypto world," I want to clarify that title. While we are known for being hardworking, it's more like the spirit of "Work hard and play hard." For example, we don't require people to clock in at work, nor do we mandate that everyone must go to the office every day. Although we have offices in many parts of the world, we value results more. So, as long as you deliver results, you have a lot of flexibility.

Our team also takes vacations, but just because you're on vacation doesn't mean you disappear, and work stops. We care a lot about that. So, I usually schedule my travels around holidays like this. This year, during the Labor Day holiday, I happened to go to Miami to attend Consensus, as we have some U.S. matters to attend to this year.

If it's purely for leisure, I probably like more exotic places I've been to, such as Morocco and Turkey. But for a more laid-back type of trip, I really enjoy Italy. However, there are still some places on my list that I haven't been to yet, like Tanzania to see the great wildebeest migration, and more adventurous trips to places like the North and South Poles. I'm also looking forward to those.

Q3: You have faced negative reviews on Xiaohongshu. Which criticisms do you feel have misunderstood you the most? What are the facts?

Gracy:

Wasn't there a popular tote bag these past two days? At this year's event, since we didn't have a booth, our marketing colleagues said, "Since we don't have a booth, let's create a mobile one." They asked if I minded using your photo to make a trendy tote bag. At that moment, without much thought, I said, "Sure, no problem." I remember there was a slogan that said, "I'm very socially anxious, but this tote bag is very social." So I think there's a misunderstanding. Everyone really thinks I'm very social, but I'm not socially anxious. Recently, I've started to enjoy being alone.

I feel like I'm inherently an E person, but I've become more I because of this job. I think the second misconception is also reflected in that bag, saying "I can really hold a lot," so we put all the misunderstandings very directly on this bag. This is my way of responding, and I feel that since this industry is so fast-paced, being able to attract everyone's attention is also a good thing in my opinion. So, as they say, black is also a kind of red.

On the other hand, in this day and age, people are still very inclusive. For example, people are very inclusive of female CEOs, or female leaders who can be strong, have sharp opinions, show off, and have a personal life. At the same time, I think people are also inclusive when brands are doing publicity and marketing, where they can have some unconventional methods.

However, there was a controversial event before where Bitget Wallet used a very unconventional kissing photo from Dubai as a card. Our Wallet team had the consent of the two individuals, but I was not consulted at the time, and it was sent out directly. When I saw it, I also felt that it might have been a bit too much, and later, many netizens criticized it, so it was also taken offline.

What I want to say is that from the perspective of our company, we embrace innovation. And I believe that in the process of this kind of innovation, there will definitely be things like this that happen, and we need to control that boundary. I think first and foremost we need to encourage this kind of innovation. If even minor mistakes are not tolerated, then people will not dare to innovate, and a brand's core communication and creativity may be reflected in these aspects.

Breaking the Impasse and Reshaping: UEX Strategy, the RWA Wave, and a New Paradigm of Transactions in the Silicon-Based Life Era

Q4: Bitget took the lead and actively listed stocks, IPOs, and precious metal-related assets. I heard that some exchange users have already accounted for a considerable proportion of the stock trading volume. Could you please reveal to us what changes have occurred in user behavior and asset holdings on Bitget after the listing of traditional assets? From a data perspective, in your opinion, what percentage of Bitget's UEX plan has been achieved?

Gracy:

UEX is our long-term strategy, with the aggregation of various assets being just the first step. From a data standpoint, we have also seen some shifts, such as in Q1 this year, the trading volume of non-crypto assets on our platform has already reached nearly 40%. At the same time, we have also observed that the acceptance of non-crypto assets on the UEX section shows significant regional characteristics.

Using US Stock Tokens as an example, in regions where there are asset controls, foreign exchange restrictions, and high barriers to opening a US stock account, users show a higher acceptance of our product. Firstly, we do not conduct business in sanctioned countries, such as Iran; no matter how much money is involved, we do not profit from this money. However, there are indeed many regions where opening a US stock account is quite challenging. We see these users opting for our product when they are global asset allocation, as we are a natural choice for them due to their lack of other channels. We are not a dispensable presence but a necessity, which is why such regions exhibit these characteristics and demonstrate higher acceptance.

The second point is that over half of Bitget's users are from Asia. In January and February of this year, the geopolitical conflicts led to significant fluctuations in precious metals and oil prices. As a result, the trading volume surged, with the highest daily gold trading volume on our platform almost reaching that of Bitcoin.

Since the launch of the UEX strategy in September last year, a large number of US stock assets were listed in Q4. In January this year, through CFDs, we diversified into bulk commodities such as gold, oil, and forex assets. However, users need an adaptation period for new products, and unforeseen events like geopolitical conflicts have acted as catalysts for user acceptance. When the price of gold experiences a significant pullback, user trading activity increases. Additionally, with leverage in play, the market sees a certain scale of liquidation, a normal occurrence in high-volatility markets.

Looking at the UEX strategy now, I believe we have only completed the first phase. In my definition, the first phase is to initially cover these assets comprehensively. In the next phase, we need to continuously optimize the products that have already been listed.

Let me give you an example with US Stock Tokens, which we currently view as quite mainstream in the RWA world. However, US Stock Tokens like Ondo and xStocks have been around for almost a year. Although we launched in September or October last year, we still encounter many issues. For instance, one significant issue for users is whether they receive dividends or not. The design of this dividend distribution mechanism is quite subtle; in reality, dividends are distributed, but they cannot be directly credited to your account. Instead, they are obtained through the underlying Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) that purchases the asset in reverse and reflects it in the price. Therefore, you have the economic rights to dividends, but you do not directly see this dividend payment. Due to this mechanism, the price of the underlying SPV, let's say the tokenized product like Meta, may be $500, and after a dividend distribution, it might show $510. However, the underlying Meta remains at $500, causing users to perceive an increasing price gap and leading to discomfort. These issues are very subtle and hard to notice.

If you don't do this thing, if you are not a trader, you may not think of this issue, and it is what we need to continuously optimize in the second phase now. For example, can we explore a way to distribute dividends, or how to make users perceive better? Also, the extension of trading hours such as 24/7, 24/5 is a very sexy term, but how can we optimize liquidity during weekends when the US stock market is closed? There are many such issues that we encounter when dealing with traditional assets.

Q5: I noticed that Bitget recently launched IPO Prime. I understand that it is a key step in the UEX strategy to extend from the secondary market to the primary market. What is the logic behind your choice to collaborate with Republic and pioneer the preSPAX? Compared to the on-chain model and the reservation and derivative model of other trading platforms, what are the advantages of Bitget's design of "compliant SPV + structured subscription" in your opinion?

Gracy:

I wrote an article sharing some of the stories behind our collaboration with Republic. Because I have known the two co-CEOs of Republic Crypto for many years, and there is a little story. Because I and their co-CEO Andrew, both being invested companies of Dragonfly, Dragonfly previously held some closed-door meetings, and Andrew and I happened to be in the same group at that time. We have completed many tasks together and even won a championship at that time. It was a very interesting experience that also made my relationship with Republic and Andrew more close.

Since we planned to launch the Pre IPO product last year, because I knew they had a deep layout in this area, I had our team talk to Republic at that time. However, we could not make a decision solely based on the good personal relationship between Gracy and Andrew. We had to evaluate the situation objectively. In fact, the team conducted a lot of research in the entire market, and eventually, we did choose Republic because of their rich licensing, such as in the US, Europe, and many other places. Additionally, they have issued tokenized pre-IPO stocks with some other exchanges, and they have encountered some pitfalls in the process, which can also contribute to the design of our product and help us avoid some risks, such as wording risks. For example, in our promotion, when we talk about it as a debt, not equity, we do have a third-party SPV that holds those equities, but in our external promotion, we would have some rhetoric for risk control from a compliance perspective.

We chose Republic primarily for three reasons: first, its licensing; second, its existing experience; and third, its transparent mechanism.

Republic's Pre-IPO product is more challenging than a regular U.S. stock product because a company's listing is an event where its timing and price cannot be entirely anticipated. For example, the company we are listing this time is SpaceX. When will SpaceX go public? Only Elon Musk can decide when it will go public. We have been designing this product since last year, but an event occurred in February and March this year, which was SpaceX's merger with xAI. It acquired Grok and merged everything in. So, at that time, we found that those SPVs that were in talks to sell old shares suddenly stopped selling, or the prices all changed, and everything had to be renegotiated. There are many such details in between, and only when you actually develop this product will you realize that there are quite a few pitfalls. And we are also offering this to users at our cost price, so we are not trying to make money from this product; it is more about giving benefits to users.

Many users will ask, "Our valuation this time is 1.5 trillion, and Reuters estimates the value of this product to be 2 trillion after listing. Now there are some platforms on the chain that have a trading valuation of over 2 trillion. So, users will wonder why Bitget is so cheap? Is it because they have some risks of not having a 1:1 mapping?" What I want to explain to everyone is that this is actually because we required our third-party SPV six months ago to go out into the market to purchase and confirm a valuation. So, the undervaluation that everyone is getting is because of a time difference. This valuation was obtained six months ago, and at the current price, it is now being provided to everyone at this point in time. So, everyone is actually getting a bargain here, rather than there being no underlying mapping. For us, a 1:1 mapping is the most critical point when we do all RWA products. From the mechanism design of the Pre-IPO product, we will also ensure that after the IPO finally takes place, the price of the "presale" token will align 1:1 with the stock token of this asset.

Q6: In a previous interview, you mentioned that "the four-year cycle pattern still exists but has now been 'smoothed out' by Wall Street capital represented by ETFs and DeFi Asset Tokenization (DAT)." The global market is rapidly reassessing macro risks. In this context, what do you think is the impact on exchanges and what are the strategies for transformation?

Gracy:

Of course, we have made significant strategic adjustments. Why do we have the concept of UEX? Because we found that pure Crypto can no longer meet the needs of our users, nor can it meet our own development cycle. There are some very definite trends in the entire market that we have seen, and we need to capture them.

For example, the first is the growth of stablecoins. Stablecoins are actually attracting more and more traditional funds at a super-fast pace, including family offices, charitable foundations, and especially cross-border payments. The other day, I was talking to a friend of mine who is completely unrelated to the industry. His family owns many stores in Yiwu, and he told me he holds a lot of USDT. I asked him why he has so much USDT, and he said they use USDT all over Yiwu because it is the best asset for cross-border transfers.

There are many similar scenarios, and I am very certain that everyone will have more and more stablecoins, and the ratio of stablecoins to fiat currency will also increase. So, we hope to capture the incremental trades of stablecoins because Bitget is mainly focused on trading. Bitget Wallet or some of our other sister companies may have more payment scenarios, but we believe that as stablecoins are used more for payments, they will also be used more for trading. So, this is the first opportunity we want to capture, using U to conduct transactions.

The second opportunity is the previously mentioned RWA, tokenized US stocks compared to traditional US stocks, which is currently at 0.1%. This data is on the RWA of products like money market funds and private credit, where it may already be at least 0.5% - 1%. I believe the tokenization process of US stocks will accelerate significantly with the participation of the NYSE and Nasdaq. It may suddenly reach a tipping point because in our discussions with them, we have found that they are deeply engaging with their new companies to be listed, discussing issuing a Token directly. Although it is still based on existing platforms such as ATS and the existing infrastructure, including custody possibly still under the original US stock architecture like DTCC, the tokenization process is very rapid because they have already submitted applications to the SEC; it just depends on when the SEC will approve.

We also hope to cooperate with them in terms of some channels, but overall, RWAs are growing, gold can be tokenized, oil can be tokenized, as mentioned earlier, US stocks can be tokenized, and even Pre-IPO. Many financial assets can be tokenized.

But we also have our boundaries. For example, real estate RWA is a hot topic, but as a global exchange, the tokenization of a house in Hong Kong versus a house in Dubai is too non-standard, and it is subject to different local regulations and acceptance. There are diverse rules that may not be the typical assets users want to trade, so we will mainly offer more relatively standardized financial assets for RWA.

So on this issue, we basically made a decision that we are not very involved in assets like art and real estate (RWA), but we are very supportive of non-standardized financial assets other than these.

Q7: Bitget is quite high-profile in terms of AI, whether it's the use by internal employees or the launch of GetAgent. Why are you so optimistic about AI? Are you worried about an AI bubble? Bitget currently has around 2,200 employees. If everyone were to use AI, in which areas do you think the company would undergo a qualitative change?

Gracy:

Regarding a bubble, I think in AI assets, such as certain US stocks, their prices have already been inflated, especially some of the long tail. I think NVIDIA is doing fine, but it is indeed very expensive. Some of the long tail AI stocks are in a bubble. But in terms of using AI, I don't think there is a bubble.

First of all, at least from what I can see in our company now, I was just chatting with the head of one of our VIPs, and I asked him how many scenarios are currently using AI? Then I shared with him how I use AI.

I have tried many AI tools, such as Nano Banana, which I use to create images together with my son. This is a bit more lifestyle-oriented. I have been using AI for images, videos, etc., for a long time, like back in the Midjourney era, two or three years ago when I was using AI for graphics. Recently, what I am more into is Manus. I wait for 8,000 credits to be replenished every month. It is interesting in my world because, for example, in our recent US business operations, which I personally lead, I will give my Manus, I have a dedicated US Chief Strategy Officer AI agent, I feed it a lot of content while avoiding some information leaks. I give it content that I think is suitable for AI, and then today I am going to meet someone, what are we going to talk about? And who do I want to find? His LinkedIn, I need to send him a quick email, all of these are done by AI. Then later I'm about to do something right away, I also let the Agent quickly research their existing research and tell me how we can collaborate.

I also build a knowledge base for it, so it knows who Bitget is, who Gracy is, and what my stance and goals are. So when it generates content for me, it is very quick and does not need to redo the work. I even have an agent in Manus that teaches me how to date, which is very fun.

I discussed with the AI lead, Bill, and by the end of last year, our company had around 22 use cases, which should have increased by now. All 22 use cases involve the use of AI.

Returning to more core business use cases, what have we done with AI? For example, some very basic scenarios like customer service, translation, and knowledge base establishment have all been effectively implemented with AI. Furthermore, in compliance-related scenarios, such as Know Your Transaction (KYT), AI is also used for detection. Additionally, some of the transaction tools we have developed lead us to believe that in the future, there may be more transactions between AIs than between humans. Therefore, we have created many transaction tools. This year, crawfish has been quite popular, and we quickly launched GetClaw. GetClaw not only provides information but can also directly place orders for you. For example, if you receive a message on Telegram, you can simply tell your GetClaw on Telegram what to do, ask for advice, or inquire about any precautions to take during the transaction. All of these tasks can be handled by AI.

I would like to share a very important concept. We believe that in the future world, starting with Bitget, I have told the entire company that I think the future will definitely involve carbon-based life forms and silicon-based life forms working together. This trend is irreversible. You must embrace it; otherwise, you will undoubtedly be eliminated. Essentially, you are not being eliminated by the company; you are being eliminated by this era. Therefore, we advocate for the use of AI by all employees. I also believe that in this process, those who do not use AI will be eliminated. More importantly, those who use AI effectively will see their efficiency increase by 5 to 10 times.

Talking about Role Models, the Thrilling 35-Year Journey and the Quiet Growth in Obscurity

Q8: Last year, you must have just celebrated your 35th birthday. If you were to summarize the first 35 years of your life in three words, what would they be? Compared to when you first became the CEO of Bitget in 2024, what changes have occurred at Bitget and in your personal growth?

Gracy:

Regarding the changes at Bitget from 2024 to the present, the first thing that comes to mind is: we have made some changes in how we value and define our users. Back in 2024, the TON ecosystem was booming, and we had a very close collaboration with TON, acquiring many users. However, in 2024, we made a significant adjustment. We shifted from merely focusing on the number of new users to paying deeper attention to the value of each user, the Long-Term Value (LTV), and our VIP and institutional users. Therefore, the entire company's KPIs have transitioned from pursuing Quantity to pursuing Quality, which I believe is a crucial shift.

In relation to the second theme we just discussed, since 24 years ago, we have been responding to and observing the changes of this era, starting to see more involvement from RWA and Traditional Finance in the market. In January of 24, when the first Bitcoin ETF was approved, the Blackrock Bitcoin ETF, you would begin to notice many mainstream market institutions paying attention to Bitcoin. After Bitcoin surpassed $100,000 last year, I had many trust fund friends and family offices asking me whether they should allocate 5% of their assets to Bitcoin. At $100,000, I actually dissuaded many people. If you look at my Twitter, I dissuaded many people back then, and at the time, many people also criticized me. However, in hindsight, dissuading people at $100,000 was actually a good choice. At that time, I also told them that there would still be bull and bear cycles, especially emphasizing not to leverage, especially not to leverage to buy at $100,000. I dissuaded many friends like mine. But coming back to it, this indicates that cryptocurrency is no longer a small circle but something you must embrace regulation, compliance, institutions, and embrace these large pools of capital. So, this is also a strategic adjustment our company has made in its development, with this strategy becoming more apparent last year.

As for my personal transformation, as I mentioned earlier, because this job is really too "E," I have become a bit more "I." I have taken the MBTI test, and I am an ENTJ, but my E and I are indeed getting closer to the midpoint. I used to be extremely extroverted, but now, I am too extroverted as there are too many external matters in my work, so I have become a bit more introverted personally.

The second significant growth area is a strong focus on the business because I come from a marketing background. Before 24, when serving as the General Manager, I also played a role more akin to a CMO, but after becoming a CEO, you need to consider many aspects, such as how we can become a better team, how to manage a 2,000-person company where everyone is aligned in their hearts, which I find quite challenging. Also, in recruiting and staffing, for example, the details in the U.S. business we are currently conducting are quite extensive. If you had spoken to me 24 years ago about the IPO Prime mechanism design or the Ondo mechanism design, I might not have understood, of course, those did not exist at the time, but similar things, I probably would not have paid much attention to the business details.

Key Words of My First 35 Years, I believe the first key word is "Always Moving to a Bigger Stage," perhaps when I was in Chengdu No. 7 High School, I told myself that I was already the best high school student in Sichuan Province, so I had to go to the best university in Asia. Thus, I went to the National University of Singapore, and then after going to Singapore, I said that I had to go to the best university in the world, so later I went to MIT. There has indeed been this continuous growth, of course, in my career, from previously working in Web2 startups, joining Bitget, and becoming the CEO, growing the company bigger and bigger, I also feel a great sense of achievement.

The second thing I feel is "tranquility in seclusion", which is a bit introverted, and sometimes I really enjoy the parent-child moments with my child.

The third thing I feel is not pretending that much anymore, the pretending I mentioned earlier or the pretentious aspect. Instead, I now enjoy watching stand-up comedy. I have even tried stand-up comedy myself. I also posted an article on Xiaohongshu (a Chinese social media platform) talking about stand-up comedy. I think using a lot of things to jest and joke, including my critique of negative reviews, is because I don't care that much about this matter. So, I bring it up and even joke about it.

Therefore, life is fun. Life itself is a one-way journey, so let's have fun with it. It's essential to be happy during this process.

Q9: You have mentioned your concern for your son in many posts. If you were to find a role model for your son, who do you think it would be and why?

Gracy:

Sometimes I find that my son is learning things from me anytime, anywhere. So, if it's someone very current, I would think I might be that role model.

When he was six months old, I noticed a movement he made that I found very interesting. He took a sip of water from the bottle, finished it, and then made a sound like "ah." I wondered where this "ah" came from. Our nanny said, "Have you noticed that sometimes you are very happy after finishing a drink? Are you like that too?" I found out that at six months old, he was constantly learning from my actions. Especially now that I am a single mother, there is no husband in my world, and his father was last seen by him 22 years ago. So, my influence on him, including my parents helping me take care of him, the influence of this small circle of family on him is very, very significant.

By the way, I hope that one day I will no longer be able to be his role model. He will break the waves on the shore and find his next ideal role model.

Q10: Who is a historical figure you admire the most? What qualities of his/her character attract you?

Gracy:

I have several role models myself. Honestly, for example, in the process of building Bitget, I really like JP Morgan, and I am reading his biography. We are mobilizing many executives in the company to read his biography because he lived in the late nineteenth to early twentieth century, a very transformative financial era. During that Gilded Age, many events, especially when he lived in the United States, the rapid industrialization of America, and the financial architecture were all undergoing a major reshuffle, even before the Great Depression. So at that time, how did he deal with such a transformative financial era? Speaking on a broader level, we have somewhat similar feelings because Crypto is currently reshaping traditional finance, and we have the opportunity to stand at such a historical moment to build a multi-billion-dollar company. I think this is very mission-driven, so I really resonate with JP Morgan from this perspective.

From an investment perspective, I really admire Duan Yongping. People like Li Lu are deeply influenced by Buffett's value investing. When I applied to business school, I also seriously considered Columbia University because of its excellent value investing program, which provides many opportunities to learn from these masters on Wall Street.

As a role model in life, if I had to pick one, it would probably be Yang Lan. Yang Lan was a role model for me when I was very young because I felt she was a very knowledgeable older sister. When I was in my teens, I read her book "Standing Alone by the Sea," which I really liked. I have also worked on Yang Lan's interview program and interned there. I have met her, and I have done quite a lot of work at Yang Lan's Sun Media Studio. I have had the opportunity to meet many of my role models in person and learn a lot from them. However, I have never met JP Morgan, and now it's impossible to meet him; he truly is a historical figure.

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