Bitget CEO Gracy: AI Forces Crypto to De-bubble, Exchanges Enter Full-Asset Competition

Throughout June, major exchanges have been rapidly deploying US stock products. As the earliest and most aggressive player in this track, Bitget has also launched its own RWA platform, Reality, and made significant upgrades to its US stock offerings. Today, we invited Bitget CEO Gracy to discuss this trend and other hot topics in the industry.

Bitget has previously integrated stock token solutions like Ondo. Now, with US Stocks 2.0, it has chosen to switch to Reality. What is the biggest difference between the two? What core issues is this upgrade primarily intended to solve?

Gracy: We started collaborating with Ondo in the third quarter of last year, at one point accounting for nearly 90% of the market share of their issued stock tokens. It wasn't just Ondo; we also launched US stock tokens in partnership with xStocks. However, throughout this process, the most frequent feedback we heard from users was: liquidity isn't good enough, and the settlement mechanisms for dividends and stock splits aren't clear or transparent enough.

So, we decided to tackle this problem ourselves. Reality is a compliant RWA protocol we launched. Its biggest difference lies in directly connecting with the US licensed broker Alpaca, allowing orders to be routed straight to Nasdaq and the NYSE. Simply put, when trading Reality's US stock rTokens, users get the same price as Apple or Tesla on the US stock market, with liquidity directly comparable to traditional brokerages.

Additionally, Reality solves the pain points of dividends and stock splits. Cash dividends are automatically converted to USDT and airdropped to users, and stock splits are synchronized 1:1, ensuring there's no longer a disconnect between the token price and the actual stock price.

In the future, will users be able to use stock tokens like Nvidia or Tesla as margin to continue trading BTC, ETH, or other derivatives?

Gracy: This feature was already launched on June 4th. This is also the core reason why we insist on tokenization, rather than just doing a "direct broker connection." The rNVDA (Nvidia rToken) users buy can be directly used as margin for derivatives trading on Bitget, or transferred out via public chains like Arbitrum and Morph for use in DeFi scenarios. What we want to do is truly activate the US stock tokens in users' hands, improving overall capital efficiency.

Recently, several exchanges have been upgrading their US stock-related products. What are the core differences of Bitget's upgrade compared to stock products on other platforms?

Gracy: Indeed, many platforms are deploying US stock products recently, but looking around, most competitors are still focusing on the "direct broker connection" model. That means users deposit with stablecoins, then open accounts and trade with traditional brokers. Bitget recently launched US Stocks 2.0. A key upgrade point is that we chose a more crypto-native path, i.e., RWA stock tokens.

The core difference is that stocks bought via a "direct broker connection" usually just sit in the user's US stock account. But on Bitget, rTokens issued through Reality are genuine on-chain assets, currently integrated with Arbitrum and Morph public chains. This means users can not only use them as margin within Bitget, but also withdraw them to their own wallets. In the future, they can even be used in DeFi protocols for staking, yield generation, and more.

We specifically solved two long-standing industry problems. First, liquidity: our orders go directly to Nasdaq and NYSE, with prices, order books, and depth synchronized with the real market. Second, dividend distribution and stock splits/consolidations: cash dividends are directly converted to USDT and automatically airdropped; stock splits/consolidations are also synchronized 1:1, preventing a disconnect between the token price and the actual stock price.

More importantly, in a UEX environment, these rTokens can truly achieve higher capital efficiency. For example, if a user holds rNVDA (Nvidia rToken), they can directly use it as margin to continue trading BTC or ETH contracts, allowing the same asset to work in two markets simultaneously. This is a truly native on-chain experience, something a direct broker connection cannot achieve.

A long-standing criticism of stock tokens is: Are users buying a tokenized representation of actual stock equity, or just a price tracking tool? How will Reality prove to users that the underlying stocks are real, auditable, and traceable? Will it provide proof of reserves, custodian disclosures, audit reports, or broker structure explanations in the future?

Gracy: This is an excellent question. Indeed, if it's just a "synthetic asset" tracking price, it has no soul. Reality's rTokens are backed by solid underlying assets. Our underlying stocks are custodied by the US licensed broker Alpaca and held in an independent SPV, completely segregated from the platform's own assets. We maintain a 1:1 fully reserved basis.

Simultaneously, we undergo daily audits by a third-party US licensed audit firm. The Reality official website has already launched a real-time audit dashboard where users can check the reserve ratio anytime. We expect to add the audit report from a CPA licensed firm to this dashboard once they are ready around August. Coupled with Bitget's user protection fund of over $300 million acting as a backstop, this forms a triple-layer safeguard.

(Source: Screenshot of Reality PoR dashboard as of June 12, 2026, 2:00 PM GMT+8)

If a stock undergoes a stock split, reverse split, special dividend, merger, acquisition, or delisting in the future, how will Reality handle it?

Gracy: Regarding the handling of corporate actions, this is another area where we are stronger than many products on the market. Take stock splits, for example. Last year, when Netflix had a 1-for-10 split, some platforms' tokens did not rebase synchronously, causing the token price to differ from the real stock price by a factor of 10, confusing users. But with Reality, stock splits are synchronized automatically. If a user holds 1 token, it becomes 10 tokens, with the unit price pegged to the actual stock price, so the total asset value remains unaffected.

Cash dividends are also directly converted to USDT and automatically airdropped to Bitget accounts, ensuring clarity and transparency. Whether for individual retail investors or future institutional users, especially those involved in hedging, valuation, liquidation, and portfolio management, the structure where "price is price, dividends are dividends" mirrors the usage habits of the traditional financial system more closely.

Over the past few years, the main narratives for crypto users have been BTC, ETH, DeFi, NFTs, Memes, L2s, and public chain competition. But recently, it's clear that assets and companies like AI, US stocks, Nvidia, OpenAI, and SpaceX are absorbing a huge amount of capital and attention.

Do you observe this migration in your platform data? What is the current proportion of non-crypto trading volume on Bitget? How fast is it growing?

Gracy: We have indeed observed this trend. As early as late 2024 and early 2025, we noticed altcoins performing weakly while user enthusiasm for AI, US stocks, gold, silver, and other commodities began to rise. This is why I proposed the vision of UEX (Universal Exchange) back in September last year.

In December last year, the cumulative trading volume of our US stock perpetual contracts exceeded $10 billion, ranking second globally. Earlier this year, the daily trading volume of our TradFi segment, including gold and forex, surpassed $2 billion for the first time. Currently, 40% of Bitget's trading volume comes from non-crypto assets.

The reason is simple: capital chases returns. Where there is more certain growth and wealth effects, funds will flow. US AI giants are delivering real revenue and profits, while many crypto projects are still in the storytelling phase.

As for whether this trend will reverse, I don't see it as a zero-sum game. Crypto assets, like BTC as digital gold, and US tech stocks can perfectly complement each other in a user's investment portfolio. What we need to do is allow users to seamlessly buy different asset classes within a single account using stablecoins like USDT and USDC.

From a macro perspective, US stocks, especially AI-related assets, have seen significant gains over the past six months, with many assets increasing tenfold. For many crypto users, they might only start paying attention to US stocks after the wealth effect in the crypto market declined. Entering at this point, however, might actually mean facing the risk of buying the top.

What is your view on the current position of US stocks? What is the most crucial mistake users transitioning from crypto to US stock trading need to avoid?

Gracy: The biggest pain points for crypto users are capital efficiency and asset fragmentation. If funds are left on the exchange earning interest, they might miss out on stock market gains. If they open an account with a traditional broker, it's difficult for the funds to return to the exchange for derivatives trading. Our rToken product is designed to solve this: while users buy US stocks, their holdings can still be used as margin for derivatives contracts, keeping their capital active.

Whether US stocks are expensive depends on the user's time horizon. Crypto users entering US stocks must first realize that, like crypto assets, the US stock market doesn't only go up. Especially for hot areas like AI, semiconductors, and tech stocks, which have already seen substantial gains recently, short-term volatility and valuation pressures need to be comprehensively assessed.

Setting aside my CEO role, as an investor managing my own personal account, I recently shared some judgments on Twitter about the potential bottom price of Bitcoin in this cycle. This was met with skepticism from many netizens: "As a CEO of an exchange, you shouldn't be bearish on your own business." But I want to say that every industry has cycles. I'm just presenting the data and logic, pointing out possible cyclical changes. We are certainly long-term bullish on the crypto industry and believe tokenized assets will bring new opportunities. However, being "long-term bullish" doesn't mean you have to be "perpetually bullish." After all, trading opportunities come from volatility. For increasingly mature investors, both ups and downs can be opportunities.

From a technical perspective, there are some extreme deviations in the current market. A report and related chart from Bank of America (BofA) show that the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index (SOX) has risen to 62% above its 200-day moving average. Historically, when major market bubbles have peaked, the average deviation of relevant market indices from the 200-day moving average was around 35%. The current deviation has already exceeded the 55% level that the Nasdaq Index deviated from its 200-day moving average just before the dot-com bubble burst in 2000.

(Source: BofA's The Flow Show report from May 14, 2026, 10:45 PM EDT)

Furthermore, the current rally in US stocks is heavily dependent on a handful of tech giants. If mega-IPOs like SpaceX or Anthropic hit the market next, they could further divert market liquidity.

Crypto users are accustomed to high volatility, high leverage, and short-term trading. While US stocks also have volatility, their fundamentals are more about earnings, valuation, interest rates, and macro cycles. What trading habit do you think they most need to change?

Gracy: For users transitioning from crypto to US stocks, the most important reminder I want to give is: don't trade US stocks like you trade memes. In the crypto space, users might be used to following sentiment, community hype, and using high leverage for short-term trades. However, the US stock market is highly institutional, focusing on earnings reports, EPS (earnings per share), interest rate environments, and macro cycles.

Users accustomed to the crypto market need to learn to closely monitor treasury yields and inflation data. For instance, when the 10-year US Treasury yield approaches 5%, it could put pressure on high-valuation tech stocks.

Additionally, users shifting from crypto to US stocks need to change another trading habit: reduce leverage and lengthen time horizons. Blue-chip US stocks have real earnings, cash flow, and business moats behind them, making them more suitable for asset allocation and long-term dollar-cost averaging, rather than going all-in today expecting a double tomorrow like trading a low-cap token. Be patient, and be a friend of time. To help crypto users better adapt to the rhythm of US stocks, Bitget will continue to launch educational content about US stock investing. We welcome everyone to follow along and learn to become "distinguished US stock traders."

In the past, crypto was one of the most concentrated areas for young talent, venture capital, tech narratives, and speculative capital. But now, AI has clearly become the stronger main theme: top talent goes to AI, VCs invest in AI, secondary market funds chase AI, and US tech giants deliver real revenue and growth.

How significant do you think AI's impact is on crypto? How is AI used internally at Bitget? Is it mandatory or included in performance reviews? What AI products do you use?

Gracy: The impact definitely exists, but I prefer to see it as a "de-bubbling" touchstone for the crypto industry. Money was too easy to make in crypto before. Now that AI is siphoning off capital and talent, it forces the crypto industry to settle down and find truly valuable real-world applications, like stablecoin payments and RWA.

Internally at Bitget, we require all employees to fully embrace AI. AI-driven innovation is one of our three core strategies for 2026. We haven't rigidly included AI usage in mandatory performance reviews because if tools are good, people will naturally use them. I personally often use tools like Manus and NotebookLM to summarize materials—it's indeed addictive.

Simultaneously, we support our employees in using AI at an organizational level. Bitget has purchased enterprise-level Claude access for all 2,167 employees, costing $200 per person per month. This isn't due to external requirements, but because after observing employees using AI tools, we saw a real productivity boost and want to ensure our team doesn't fall behind in the AI application wave.

Even our design team, without a technical background, has learned to use tools like Google AI Studio and developed 6 or 7 AI tools to assist business operations, such as automatically auditing external materials for UI compliance issues. On the product side, we have also launched AI tools designed for traders, such as GetAgent and GetClaw.

We have AI-related training almost every day. This week, I participated in the "Data Team AI Product Thematic Sharing Session" and the "Digital Employee Plan and BG Agent Platform Introduction Sharing Session."

AI is a productivity lever. Whoever uses it well will run faster in the next cycle. Now and in the future, it will undoubtedly be an era where silicon-based and carbon-based life work together.

More and more crypto exchanges are now offering US stocks, gold, forex, stock tokens, and pre-IPO products. Optimistically, this is the expansion of crypto infrastructure to global assets; pessimistically, it might indicate that crypto itself lacks quality assets, forcing exchanges to bring in US stocks to maintain growth.

How do you see this issue? When crypto exchanges start integrating US stocks, does it enhance the value of crypto's financial infrastructure, or does it channel crypto user traffic towards traditional finance, ultimately turning crypto into an outsourced market for US stock liquidity?

Gracy: I don't see this as a black-and-white issue. When crypto exchanges integrate US stocks, gold, forex, and pre-IPO products, on the surface, it seems like "bringing traditional financial assets into Crypto." But looking deeper, it's actually validating a fundamental question: Is Crypto just another asset class, or is it a new set of financial infrastructure?

My judgment is that the answer depends on how the exchange does it. If it simply packages US stock price exposure as a trading product, then it could indeed become a distribution channel for traditional financial liquidity, or even just funnel crypto user traffic to US stocks.

However, if it can reorganize asset issuance, trading, clearing, custody, and risk management based on stablecoin accounts, on-chain settlement, global accessibility, fractional trading, and 24/7 markets, then it is enhancing not just one particular US stock, but the value of Crypto as the next-generation financial infrastructure.

Moreover, if you have used many traditional financial platforms, you know the user barriers are quite high: difficult account opening, high entry thresholds, and slow capital movement. Our goal is to bridge the underlying assets via stablecoin settlement and on-chain RWA protocols, allowing Bitget's 120 million global users to trade top global assets with just a phone and an email.

I don't see this as outsourcing. It's using Crypto's high efficiency and low friction to disrupt and improve the experience of traditional brokerages. We are not losing users; instead, through tokenization solutions like Reality, we are pulling real-world assets onto the chain, making them part of DeFi. This is expanding Crypto's territory. I believe that as the industry develops, the definition of Crypto is evolving. Initially, Crypto meant just Bitcoin. Later, Crypto became memecoins. In the future, a lot of Crypto will be RWA. Regardless of the asset, underlying technologies like blockchain are the foundation driving this new financial system. Our long-term bullishness on the industry stems, to a certain extent, from our confidence in this technology.

Bitget proposed UEX, essentially allowing users to trade cryptocurrencies, stocks, gold, forex, ETFs, and other assets within a single account. This sounds like an expansion of an exchange's capabilities. But it