Staying Away from the Noise: Star Discusses Crypto's Long-Term Trends and OKX's Next Steps
- Core Viewpoint: OKX founder Star believes the cryptocurrency industry is entering a new era driven by technological evolution, generational shifts in mindset, and global systemic regulation. Practitioners should adhere to long-termism and collectively safeguard the industry's reputation. Meanwhile, OKX will focus on three key directions in 2026: compliant trading services, multi-asset on-chain infrastructure, and payment experience.
- Key Elements:
- Three Major Industry Trends: Technology is evolving from token issuance to supporting complex financial applications (e.g., RWA); the younger generation increasingly recognizes the security and convenience of on-chain asset management; major countries globally are incorporating cryptocurrencies into systemic regulatory and governance frameworks.
- Call for Industry Self-Discipline: Criticizes the use of frivolous terms like "100x" and "all-in" for misleading the public and harming the industry's reputation and the long-term value of assets. Emphasizes the need for practitioners to collectively earn societal respect.
- OKX's 2026 Plan: Expand diversified trading services within global compliance frameworks; bring more real-world assets (RWA, stocks, etc.) on-chain through infrastructure like X Layer; continuously upgrade the OKX Pay payment and wallet experience to lower user barriers.
- Emphasis on Long-Term Commitment: Clearly states that X Layer (targeting TVL in the tens of billions USD) and OKB are the company's core long-term strategies. Will continue investing in ecosystem and infrastructure development, unaffected by short-term market noise.
- Partner Strategy: OKX will collaborate more closely with KOLs and partners, optimizing cooperation plans and establishing a professional service system to jointly explore win-win approaches.
On January 24, 2026, Star, founder and CEO of OKX, attended the "New Year's Eve Dinner" event via video link, sharing his latest thoughts with sincere expression. The OKX "New Year's Eve Dinner" is a special event for industry builders hosted by OKX to celebrate the Lunar New Year together.
The following is the full text of Star's speech (edited):
Year after year, we hope to continue this event. We look forward to continuing our journey with all Influencers, KOLs, and partners in the coming years, growing and achieving together in the next decade of the Crypto and blockchain industry.
Let me briefly share some of my reflections from the past year.
Seeing Trends in Industry Evolution
I have spoken on many occasions about how to view the Crypto and blockchain industry. From the birth of Bitcoin in 2008 to today, this industry has been around for fifteen or sixteen years. Back then, we viewed Bitcoin more as "fun beans" or game tokens. At that time, we didn't truly understand what blockchain was, nor did we know how the industry would develop, where regulation would go, or to what extent applications would reach—no one knew.
As the industry evolved, Bitcoin, based on blockchain, could initially only do the simplest thing: issue tokens. Later, Ethereum emerged, stating that blockchain technology could not only issue tokens but also host various applications "like mini-programs," positioning itself as the "operating system of blockchain."
Over the years, through collective efforts, including ours at OKX, we have played an important role in the Ethereum ecosystem. Today, Ethereum has indeed become the main platform for DApps, with many financial-grade applications built on it. At the same time, Ethereum is continuously evolving towards higher performance, and many high-performance chains, such as Solana, have emerged in the market. OKX is also exploring its own path. Although X Layer is still in its early stages and not yet mature, I believe it will achieve great success in the future.
As the industry developed to a certain stage, it attracted increasing attention from regulatory bodies. Starting around 2017, regulators' attitude towards the entire industry leaned towards suppression. However, after several years of development, I have noticed some core trends changing.
The first trend is that regulators are gradually beginning to recognize that the notion of "Bitcoin being equivalent to a money laundering tool" is unfounded. Any financial system can be abused; the key is that it *can* be abused, thus requiring governance and management. Within blockchain activities, illegal behavior actually constitutes a very small portion. It is more akin to a globalized, open, fair, and transparent financial system.
The second trend is that more and more young people—those born in the 90s, 95s, and 00s—have grown up hearing stories about Bitcoin. My own child asked me what Bitcoin was many years ago. Perceptions across generations about "where to place assets more securely" are changing. For people of my generation, if you ask where it's safer to put money, I might say large banks, mature financial systems, with products being more modern and user-friendly. But if you talk to the younger generation, many of them feel that using tools like OKX Wallet or Coinbase Wallet to manage assets is safer and more convenient because on-chain activities are transparent, verifiable, and the user experience is continuously improving.
When it comes to products like stablecoins, people worry about potential rugs. Taking USDG as an example, if it operates under regulatory frameworks in the EU, Singapore, and potentially the US in the future, logically, such a possibility is very small. Looking further at custody issues: in self-custody mode, if you back up your private key, you can import your assets into any other wallet—you can take your assets away at any time; we simply do not have the ability to take your assets. The custody part mainly pertains to the exchange system's custody. OKX has weathered many storms over the years. Whether it's our corporate governance structure, board governance, or our growing number of compliance licenses globally, I believe we are becoming increasingly formalized and taking on more responsibility.
Against this backdrop, the industry has experienced intense collisions over the past four to five years. On one hand, some people question or even oppose cryptocurrencies; on the other hand, more and more people are starting to use Bitcoin or other crypto assets. In this process, Crypto is moving towards a brand new era.
More importantly, Crypto is aligning itself with "future trends." Starting from the US, the trend of Crypto entering the mainstream has extended worldwide: countries and regions like the UK, EU, Japan, and Singapore have begun to view Crypto as an important long-term direction to face, build, and incorporate into governance frameworks, even gradually elevating it to a level of "national competition and strategic planning."
