OKX Star: 50% of global economic activity will run on the blockchain in the future.

On December 8th, OKX CEO Star was invited to attend Abu Dhabi Finance Week and delivered a keynote speech entitled "Project 50% – How Economies Powered by Blockchain Level the Playing Field?"

The following is the full text of Star's speech (edited):

I am deeply honored to be invited to participate in Abu Dhabi Financial Week, a globally forward-looking financial event. Today, I would like to share a simple yet bold prediction: the internet generation, which has grown up with the internet, is creating a completely new on-chain economy; in the coming decades, approximately 50% of global economic activity will operate on the blockchain. This is not a speculative prediction, but rather an inevitable demand from the new generation for financial infrastructure that suits their lifestyles in an era of deep integration of digitalization, mobile technology, and artificial intelligence.

To understand this trend, we can look back at history and explore the evolution of infrastructure paradigms that iterate every decade: the 1990s were the internet era, the 2000s were the mobile era, and the 2010s were the cloud computing era. Today, we are witnessing an even grander new narrative—programmable global financial infrastructure. This is a "financial internet" specifically designed for the internet generation, with its core vision being to enable value to flow as freely as information—instantaneously, globally, 24/7. Blockchain technology is making this vision a reality.

Behind this transformation lies a comprehensive upgrade of the economic system driven by the global digital population. The core reason blockchain stands out is that it breaks through many limitations of legacy systems from the internet era: it constructs a trustless, programmable storage infrastructure, supporting 24/7 real-time global value transfer; by continuously improving transparency, it reduces systemic risk, creating an open and interconnected network ecosystem and breaking the "island effect" of traditional global finance. Throughout each technological iteration cycle, more open, transparent, and efficient systems ultimately prevail, and the new generation is always the first to embrace change. Today, this transformation is no longer just hype; it has entered a stage of large-scale development and implementation: stablecoin settlement volume has surpassed Visa, on-chain asset size is approaching $3 trillion, and the number of global cryptocurrency wallets has exceeded 500 million; meanwhile, regulatory agencies in countries such as the United States and Singapore are actively establishing corresponding regulatory frameworks to promote the orderly development of the industry. The world is accelerating towards a unified global on-chain financial operating system, and the internet generation is the core driving force of this process.

It's worth noting that current on-chain financial infrastructure has matured and is capable of large-scale application, sufficient to meet institutional needs and handle hundreds of millions of transactions, while also achieving bank account-level security. On the OKX platform, users can already experience the convenience brought by this technological innovation: we support Apple ecosystem accounts, provide high-quality services with no gas fees, and offer performance comparable to Web2 applications; simultaneously, OKX has deployed numerous emerging blockchain networks, achieving a transaction processing capacity of millions of transactions per second, and combined with on-chain identity authentication, on-chain analytics, and auditability, is establishing new industry standards for transparency. It can be said that the maturity of the technology, the perfection of the compliance system, and the readiness of the internet generation resonate in unison.

A clear signal has emerged: Bitcoin has become the "digital gold" of the internet generation. As the first mainstream cryptocurrency in history, it possesses core characteristics such as transparency, decentralization, and freedom from the control of any single country, with its primary holders being people under 40. This generation grew up in the era of globalized internet and mobile connectivity; for them, digital value has far greater practical significance than physical gold. Today, an increasing number of global financial institutions are incorporating Bitcoin into their balance sheets, rapidly elevating it from a fringe asset to a mainstream one—a transformation that precisely demonstrates that the world is ready to embrace the era of programmable digital finance.

Let's focus on the currency itself: stablecoins are emerging as a new global payment channel, especially favored by younger users and emerging markets. The circulation of US dollar stablecoins has reached trillions within months, and regional stablecoins such as the Australian dollar and the euro have also become mainstream financial instruments. Through programmatic settlement and compliant transactions, they are gradually replacing traditional, inefficient cross-border settlement models. For the internet generation, the transfer of funds across time and space should be as instant and convenient as sending an email.

The impact of this transformation extends far beyond the payment sector, its scale and depth surpassing the boundaries of the traditional financial system. Today, banks, sovereign wealth funds, and various asset management institutions are all entering the on-chain ecosystem, and traditional assets such as funds and government bonds are gradually entering on-chain trading scenarios. These assets operate 24/7 on the blockchain, with transparent and verifiable liquidity and pricing, while also being supported by robust compliance mechanisms. Therefore, asset tokenization is no longer a tentative experiment but is gradually becoming the default infrastructure of modern financial markets.

Looking ahead to the next decade, this will not only be a decade of widespread adoption of crypto assets, but also a decade of generational shifts in the way the global economy operates. For the internet generation, currency, markets, and identities will all be on-chain, and all financial activities will be completed within a unified underlying system. When these elements are organically integrated, a complete internet-native economic architecture will be formally formed. Blockchain will become a truly global financial internet, where everyone will have a universal on-chain identity and self-custodied wallet, independently control their funds, and achieve efficient cross-jurisdictional interaction of assets, while also possessing real-time transparency and auditability. This global financial system, tailor-made for a completely online community, will lead the future not because it is "trendy," but because of its inherently superior systemic advantages.

Thank you everyone.