Crypto exchangenBitget, a cryptocurrency exchange, has grown significantly despite the challenges of the bear market. In 2023, the exchange announced two funds, one of which is $100 million. Crypto projects in Asia and the other aims to maximizelong term effect of the company in the industry.
Cointelegraph’s Zhiyuan Sun interviewed Bitget CEO Gracy Chen at the Bitget EmpowerX Summit in Singapore. The two discussed Bitget’s growth in the downstream market, pausing its expansion in Hong Kong and the US, and why they believe implementing Know Your Customer (KYC) protocols is important for exchanges.

According to Chen, the company has grown to 10 times its initial size in just two years. “Our company had about 150 employees two years ago, now it has 1,500.”, Announced. The manager emphasized that this is a result of the efforts made in recent years and based on results. Chen explained:

“We think of it as running a marathon. So what we do, if you look at our team, it’s a very operational and results-oriented team.”

The Bitget executive also noted that many efforts, from brand and product launches to the company’s partnership with football superstar Lionel Messi, are among the reasons for the company’s growth in recent years. “In terms of the secret sauce, I think it comes from everything we do: we grow.” added. Growth also makes them “financially strong” to do more business, according to Chen.
When asked about the exchange’s absence in two key markets, the US and Hong Kong, Chen stated that regulatory uncertainty in the US has hindered Bitget’s entry. He later added:

“We want to wait and evaluate the evolution of the situation and then decide whether to serve US customers. That’s always on the agenda, but I don’t think we’ll be serving the US market in the short term.”

As for Hong Kong, Chen said that it has already started discussions with the Hong Kong government and is currently in the process of applying for a license for the special administrative region.
Chen also explained why the exchange implemented mandatory KYC requirements for all its users on September 1. According to the administrator, some users complained about the new requirement. However, the manager believes that KYC enforcement is a good way to filter out “irregular” operators. Commented:

“I’m pretty sure that if the user is financially sound, not doing anything illegal, like money laundering, they should be pretty happy with the KYC process.”

Besides this, the manager believes that mandatory KYC will become a trend among major cryptocurrency exchanges in the near future.

Translation by Walter Rizzo