Traditional securities industry professionals are migrating to crypto exchanges. Why?

Author: Whiter Runner

For a long time, traditional brokerages were seen as the safer choice by many in the financial industry.

Clear regulations, established processes, and relatively predictable career paths. Spending time in such a system instills a sense of security within defined boundaries: knowing what you can and cannot do, with clear rules for every step.

However, over the past few years, as policies, compliance requirements, and the cross-border business environment have continuously evolved, the operational boundaries of traditional brokerages have also shifted. Customer offboarding, regional restrictions, and tightening client acquisition – terms that once only appeared in the news have gradually become daily realities for frontline employees. Fewer users, narrower paths, changing growth models.

It was at this point that some traditional finance professionals began looking outward once again.

Ethan, Lily, Myooi – they previously held various roles at traditional brokerages: growth, operations, creative, product, advertising. Some were just beginning to understand what a "chain" is, others had only followed Crypto in the news, and a few had already seen the convergence of traditional finance and the crypto industry.

They each had their own concerns: compliance, stability, volatility, career development, personal fit – every question deserved careful consideration.

But as familiar paths narrowed, new markets opened up. For them, Bitget isn't just a new job opportunity; it feels more like a chance to re-understand the financial industry and re-validate themselves.

Ethan: Five Years on the Overseas Financial Front Line, First to Feel the Market Shift

Ethan spent nearly five years at Futu, responsible for building regional business teams, local market development, KOL operations, and corporate partnerships.

These roles kept him on the market front line. He felt the pulse daily – where users were coming from, whether channels were still performing, if partners were willing to proceed. Later, the business boundaries of traditional brokerages began to change. Cross-border business, customer scope, and client acquisition methods all became more cautious. For someone in growth, this change was palpable: actions that could once be executed quickly now required checking feasibility, permissible regions, and acceptable limits.

Ethan has always been sensitive to external market shifts. He describes his career trajectory as spanning industries, "from internet brokerage to traditional banking to Web3," but always operating within the international financial sector. Based in Hong Kong, he witnessed an increasing number of Web3 conferences and events from exchanges like OSL and HashKey. Clients and friends frequently discussed the state of the crypto industry, its regulations, and compliance.

He noted that during his years working in Hong Kong, he clearly felt Web3 "integrating more into everyone's daily work and life." This change instilled a sense of FOMO, prompting him to seriously study the crypto industry starting in 2024.

His first proactive experience with Crypto was driven by the Trump coin in 2024. After downloading an exchange app, his initial reaction was straightforward: "What is a chain? And what are the differences between different chains?" He wasn't an expert on the industry from the start; he had to re-learn from the very basics.

But he saw a deeper opportunity. Compared to the traditional secondary market, he views the crypto industry more like a primary market, potentially "a product capable of bringing change from the settlement layer."

Subsequently, he spent over a year observing, trading, communicating, and comparing. It wasn't until he saw Bitget's UEX concept and direction, which he felt aligned with his own career development choices, that he decided to apply.

Before making the final decision, he says he "actually had no real concerns." If there was one, it was this:

"The courage to take the plunge."

For Ethan, joining Bitget is about taking the market sensitivity, channel management skills, and team-building experience honed in international finance and re-validating them in a faster, newer market that desperately needs to break new ground.

Lily: The Longer You Work in Operations at Futu, The More You Know Opportunity Won't Wait

Lily worked at Futu for over three years, primarily focusing on community operations and wealth management businesses.

She managed hot-topic market operations, user engagement and conversion for funds and ETFs, KOL sourcing and maintenance, and participated in investment strategy meetings, onboarding institutional fund accounts, and content partnerships. These roles taught her early on that financial operations rely not just on process, but also on timing.

When market trends emerge, content must follow. When user activity spikes, conversion must be ready. When a hot topic appears, operational actions must be taken immediately.

Being even slightly slow means missing the user's sentiment window.

Traditional brokerages provided her with solid training. Standardized processes, mature regulations, clear user paths – all these built her fundamental understanding of financial users and wealth management. But the longer she stayed, the more she felt the constraints: operational actions are often limited by compliance and organizational boundaries. Many times, it wasn't a lack of ideas, but the questions of feasibility, timing, and scope.

Her interest in the crypto industry also began with observing users and the market.

She found the industry "very cutting-edge," with high user trading frequency and rapid market changes. The flow of information and opportunities was noticeably faster than in traditional finance. Before joining Bitget, her understanding of Crypto was not exceptionally deep, built mainly through X, exchange announcements, industry news, and her own basic trading experience.

Her primary concerns were industry volatility and whether her own growth pace could match the company's and the industry's speed.

The pace at a crypto exchange is faster, user feedback is more direct, and the demands on operational response time and data-driven judgment are higher. In her past role at a traditional brokerage, an operational action might emphasize stability and standardization. Here, hot assets, user behavior, and market sentiment change rapidly. Operations need faster judgment and quicker action.

Lily doesn't underestimate this change.

She knows it will be more demanding and that she needs to learn a lot of industry knowledge. Yet, she also sees that the community operations, user conversion, KOL maintenance, and wealth management experience accumulated at the traditional brokerage are not obsolete. They are simply being applied in a new market with faster feedback and denser changes.

For her, Bitget's appeal isn't just the new industry itself.

It's also the faster growth rate, the stronger global vision, and the more frequent knowledge sharing. She later mentioned that one of her biggest takeaways was discovering that "I can actually adapt to a fast-paced work environment."

She brought her experience from traditional finance and, within this new rhythm, redefined the boundaries of her own capabilities.

Joyce: Bringing Three Years of Information Service Vision, Shifting from Content Creation to Value Validation

Joyce spent 3.5 years at Futu in the information services department, responsible for producing and organizing stock and financial information content. She faced daily demands: users wanting quick explanations during market events, and understanding the reasons behind asset volatility. She learned to communicate information clearly within traditional finance and became accustomed to the rules of compliance and expression boundaries.

Initially, her understanding of the crypto industry was limited to news and social media. She had concerns about volatility, compliance, and the industry's future. "I knew it was fast-paced and had high personnel turnover; stability was a question," Joyce recalled. However, she also saw it as a new space where her content's value could be validated. User reactions were direct, market feedback was rapid. "I wanted to see if my content could be re-validated in a new market."

Ultimately, her decision to join Bitget wasn't just about industry trends and short-term hype. It was a combination of personal growth opportunities and professional judgment. She says, "Let me give it a try and see if my professional experience can make a difference here."

After joining, her most immediate impression was the fast pace, direct feedback, and clearer responsibilities. Previously, at the brokerage, content often required multiple levels of approval and slow responses. At Bitget, each piece of material and content output quickly showed feedback on user activity, retention, trading, and repeat purchases. She felt this wasn't just a job change, but a re-evaluation of her professional capabilities.

For colleagues in traditional finance still on the fence, she advises: "Don't just look at short-term hype; look at whether the platform has a long-term vision, whether the team is professional, and whether the role can genuinely stretch your abilities." This reasoning mirrors her own logic for making the choice.

Joyce brought her professional skills honed in traditional finance into a new market with faster feedback and denser changes, re-validating the value of content and reaffirming her core competitiveness in financial information and content creation.

Myooi: Futu's Japan Market Creative, Didn't Want Creativity Trapped in Processes

Myooi worked at Futu for 2 years, responsible for social media ad creatives and growth ideas during the POC pioneering phase for the Japanese market.

This type of work heavily depends on speed. Capturing a trend or getting a creative to perform relies on how quickly the idea hits the market and how fast data comes back.

But in traditional brokerages, creatives must first pass layers of local legal, compliance, and other checks. She says often, "by the time the process finishes, the timeliness is already gone," and even after repeated revisions, it might still fail completely.

For someone in growth creative, this kind of attrition is exhausting. You know an expression might work; you know users are talking about it. But the material hasn't launched, and the opportunity has already cooled off.

Before joining Bitget, Myooi's knowledge of Crypto was shallow. She describes herself as more of an "outsider" who occasionally paid attention to industry trends and worried about Web3's stability. The external narrative around the industry was always split between bullish and bearish, leaving her uncertain about its long-term development.

What truly moved her was Bitget's UEX philosophy and its integration with traditional Web2. She says she already had some dissatisfaction with existing traditional financial systems, and Bitget's UEX concept "deeply resonated with me."

After joining Bitget, her most apparent feeling was the expanded creative space. The burden of tedious approvals decreased. Ideas could be tested faster, and data came back quicker.

Of course, it's not easy. She says the pace is very fast, emphasizing agility and results-orientation. Sometimes, when inspiration strikes, she gets too busy to eat. With more creative space comes the pressure to consistently produce hit materials.

But for Myooi, at least the distance between ideas and users has shortened.

Her experience building things from 0 to 1 in the Japanese market, her understanding of traditional financial user psychology, and her judgment in growth creatives can all be reused at Bitget. In her own words, bringing these fundamental business logics to Web3 and combining them with the high degree of freedom in material expression here, "creates a chemical reaction very easily."

Abby: Years of Financial Product Design, Re-understanding "Delivery" at a Faster Pace

Abby has years of experience in financial product design and also has prior experience in the crypto industry.

Her first encounter with the crypto industry was around 2018. She joined Huobi (Firecoin) at the time and had personal investment experience. So, compared to some traditional finance professionals entering Crypto for the first time, she isn't a stranger to the industry. Before coming to Bitget, she didn't have major industry-level concerns. Her decision to join was more "career development driven" and because "the work content seemed like a good fit for me."

What truly made her feel the change was the speed.

She says Bitget's pace is much faster. "For example, a feature that might take half a year to launch at Futu would be required to launch in maybe 2 months here at most."

For a product manager, this means many things are compressed.

Requirement judgment must be faster. Solution trade-offs must be faster. Cross-team communication must be faster. Delivery and review must be faster. At traditional brokerages, a wealth management product feature could be polished over a longer cycle. At Bitget, market changes and business needs drive the product forward.

It's not just about increased workload.

For Abby, the bigger challenge is re-understanding wealth management products within the crypto industry. She mentions needing to learn Web3 industry knowledge, like DeFi, which she hadn't been exposed to much before.

But she also appreciates the rhythm here.

She notes that Bitget gives her a sense of "the team's efficient output" and "rapid product development." Her biggest takeaway has been understanding how wealth management products are built in the crypto industry.

The product skills and brokerage knowledge she accumulated haven't been abandoned. This time, they are simply placed within a faster system.

For a product manager, this means pressure, but also more direct growth feedback.

Vera: Responsible for Content at Futu, She Began Wanting to Broaden Her Skill Set

Vera worked at Futu for two years, mainly responsible for investor trading content.

Back then, she was more familiar with the content aspect: when market events occur, how to explain the information; when users need judgment, how to clarify the trading logic. Responsibilities were also more clearly defined in traditional brokerages, with "more single-business-line execution staff and clear boundaries."

But later, she started thinking about pushing her abilities forward.

She seriously considered the crypto industry primarily due to "personal development opportunities." She says she "wanted to further broaden my skills" and was also looking for a remote opportunity. Before joining Bitget, her main concern was compliance. Through communication with friends and insights from industry professionals, those concerns gradually subsided. She feels Bitget "offers relatively good safety protection for employees."

After arriving at Bitget, her role changed quickly.

She started working on campaign growth operations, responsible for the campaign operations and product operations of the CFD business. Previously focused on content output, she now participates in the entire process from campaign research and planning to product communication, execution, and review.

For her, this is a very direct change.

She says Bitget "has a relatively fast pace." Single business lines usually consist of small teams where members back each other up. The overall team atmosphere is quite open. Compared to Futu, which was relatively more conservative with "less room for employee innovation."

She likes this more direct sense of achievement.

In her view, the crypto industry "is very focused on results and wants to achieve results quickly," which contrasts sharply with the slower pace of traditional industries. She also acknowledges Bitget's "growth rate and innovative atmosphere."

For Vera, coming to Bitget isn't simply changing one operations job for another.

She is still working in finance-related business, but this time, she's no longer just stuck in the content output phase. She needs to get closer to campaigns, products, users, and results, and, within a faster rhythm, push her own skill boundaries outward.

Cecilia: After Years in Advertising, She Discovered for the First Time that Work and Life Can Coexist

Cecilia previously handled performance advertising (effect ads) at Futu. After joining Bitget, she works in the ad placement data product group within the central ad platform, responsible for the strategy and execution of various placement testing projects.

She has a clear view of the differences between the two industries. Traditional brokerages operate within a more mature financial system, with "a clear and stable regulatory framework." The crypto industry, with more significant policy variations across different countries, is still in a development and exploration phase, with a comparatively more uncertain compliance path.

She also knows that market volatility is higher here, the pace is faster, and user segmentation is more pronounced. User differences, ranging from beginners to high-frequency traders, involve vastly different knowledge and behaviors. This means ad placements, creatives, audience targeting, and conversion paths require constant trial and error.

Therefore, Cecilia's choice wasn't simply being attracted by a "new industry."

Her serious consideration of the crypto industry stemmed from, on one hand, "seeing the positive development prospects," and on the other hand, the remote work model being crucial for her. At that time, a family member was seriously ill, requiring frequent travel between her primary residence and hometown. Remote work gave her the space to continue her career while also attending to real-life responsibilities.

But what truly sealed her decision was the role and the team itself.

She mentions that Bitget's interview process was "simple and quick," and communication was very professional. The JD was clearly written, indicating the company had deeply considered the role's fit, and she could see the leader's professional expertise in the business.

After joining, she felt the differences even more directly.

Bitget is "flatter and more open," with a faster pace and a good team atmosphere. Compared to the "reporting culture" and "upward management" she sometimes encountered at the traditional brokerage, she has seen almost none of that at Bitget.

She is also very aware that freedom comes at a cost.

She notes that what attracts traditional finance professionals to the crypto industry is "24/7, global liquidity, high innovation density, and more equitable tools." What requires adaptation is "no off-duty time, self-accountability, high volatility, and mindset management."

This statement reflects her own judgment style: neither glorifying nor avoiding reality.

For Cecilia, Bitget offers not just