Please answer 2018: Eight years of CEX transformation—what happened to those who "gave it a try" back then?

Author: Deep Tide TechFlow

If you could go back to 2018, what would you most want to do?

Precisely snipe a surging project? Buy the dip at $3,200 BTC? Or persuade your past self not to sell 90 BTC to buy a house?

Reality offers no rebirth fantasy, but when the question was posed to five industry veterans, the answers were surprising enough.

2018 was a special inflection point: the ICO frenzy receded, the market suddenly plunged into a deep winter, and no one knew how long this bear market would last;

Yet it was also in this year that Crypto began to enter institutional view, the DeFi bull was brewing, and beyond the tripartite rivalry of Binance, Huobi, and OKEx, more latecomers including Bybit and Bitget began to break in.

Cycles shift, narratives flow, landscapes change. Compared to the fantasy of "going back in time and achieving financial freedom," a more practically meaningful topic might be: those persistent acts of solitary courage, cautious attempts, and misunderstood decisions — has the industry now given a more definitive answer?

On the occasion of Bitget's eighth anniversary, we had serious conversations with five practitioners who have crossed different stages and witnessed the industry's rise and fall.

Five questions that once troubled them, five answers across time and space. Please answer 2018: many questions, they hope to re-examine once more.

Can an exchange born in a bear market survive until spring arrives?

Looking back at 2018, the one thing Hang would most want to say to himself is: buy more, then hold.

Eight years ago in the bear market, some watched, some left, and some began to truly study this industry. As an early seed user of Bitget, Hang belonged to the latter.

At the time still an ordinary player with small capital, his feelings about 2018 were not heavy, but rather a sense of novelty that is hard to replicate today, because in his view: he had never seen any industry where new technologies and new projects emerge as continuously as in crypto.

This ever-accelerating excitement allowed Hang to capture the differentiation taking place in the CEX sector.

Huobi was the first CEX Hang encountered, but at the time the homogenized experience of major platforms felt dull to him, so Hang preferred to follow latecomers, especially paying attention to product innovation at each.

But at the time, this attention leaned more toward experimentation — after all, no one knew back then: could an exchange born in a bear market survive until spring arrives?

The turning point came later, when Bitget launched copy trading. This made Hang's eyes light up:

At the time, CEXs focused almost entirely on spot and perpetual contracts, and few competed on product innovation. Bitget's copy trading allowed beginners to follow professional traders with one click. This proactive pursuit of change was a watershed, making Bitget go from "one among many new platforms" to a sample I was genuinely willing to continuously observe.

Of course, a single point of innovation alone is not enough to sustain user loyalty. Having gone through multiple cycles, Hang also developed deeper judgment about the long-term development of exchanges:

If in 2018, when "everything was still early," exchanges competed on product innovation; then by 2026, when "everything is being competed over," exchanges will compete on user service.

And this is also why Hang still stays with Bitget today. He shared: compared to other exchanges, with Bitget you can clearly feel their dedication. Product innovation can attract users to come for the first time; service experience can convince users to truly stay.

Looking back at the great reshuffle of 2018 from this angle, Hang also felt a sense of "inevitability": bear markets continuously weed out speculators, and true builders are better recognized. And this, it seems, is also a microcosm of exchanges:

Eight years itself is a proof of trust. Many names have already faded in the cycle of change, while those who remain can always keep giving you reasons to remember them.

When you made your first deposit, did you really feel secure?

When asked what he would say to his 2018 self, Dylan's answer has not changed much compared to 2026: stick to DYOR, do good risk management and emotional management; as long as you still have bullets, you can survive in this industry.

Entering the space in 2017, Dylan is simultaneously a VIP user of multiple mainstream CEXs, which gave him a horizontal, global perspective.

Regarding the current situation where major CEX platforms are all competing on VIP systems, he pointed out directly: the essence is competing on retention. Unlike ordinary users' simple trading, for VIP users, a platform is more like a long-term financial partner in a process of mutual adaptation.

Facing this "partner," the first criterion Dylan gives is security. After FTX, Merkle trees, proof of reserves, and fund transparency have gone from bonus points to bottom lines. Beyond that, Dylan also values an exchange's attitude and capability in solving problems during emergencies.

The second criterion is trading itself. Liquidity, depth, range of instruments, and execution speed — these fundamentals directly determine whether large capital can truly operate efficiently.

Experience and service is Dylan's third criterion. Whether it's execution speed, trading tools, or operational smoothness, these details determine the comfort of daily use and also test the product's underlying design.

Beyond hard metrics, to stand out, Dylan also pays attention to many soft skills. In this regard, Dylan shared an intuitive feeling: some platforms often only value top-tier large clients, while service for lower-tier VIPs is very rough.

But in Dylan's mind, refined operations improve the experience more, and this is precisely the key to his becoming a Bitget VIP. In the process of getting to know each other, Dylan admitted:

The first time I put money into Bitget was just a small trial. As time passed, fund storage security, product coverage of needs, and high asset management efficiency — with features like new listings, wealth management, dual-currency investment, and US stocks continuously improving — trust was built bit by bit;

Most importantly,  Bitget assigns every VIP client a dedicated account manager, so any problem can get quick and effective feedback, and whether there are events or merchandise gifts, you're notified at the first opportunity. This "being valued" experience is very touching.

Turning this trust into data, Dylan admitted: at the peak, I had roughly half of my funds in Bitget.

When talking about his expectations for the next step of this VIP system, Dylan still focused on this kind of "dedication": providing more customized services based on different user needs — for example, if some large clients have more USDT, then focus on recommending certain wealth management products. In his view, compared to fee discounts, these details make it easier for users to perceive that "the platform really understands you."

Was the original decision to "come take a look" later proven right or wrong?

Jessie, who came from an institutional background, gave her 2018 self an answer as rational as ever: don't try to judge timing or the bottom.

Jessie's correction of her stereotyped impression of crypto happened in 2019.

Before that, her understanding of the industry was very straightforward: getting rich overnight. But after becoming a strategy researcher at a quantitative firm, she quickly discovered the misunderstanding: for quantitative firms, what matters more is strategy stability.

Institutions' shift in attitude toward crypto happened in 2020. Jessie shared her judgment: after institutions like Grayscale obtained compliant licenses and began attempting to issue ETFs, this greatly broadened the channels for traditional investors to enter the crypto market.

Capital was willing to come in, but where should the funds go? This is a question of infrastructure selection. Institutions are very different from retail investors — this is Jessie's observation from years at an institution:

Retail investors are easily attracted by hotspots, coming fast and leaving fast, but institutions are more rigorous in the early stage, and once they successfully integrate, they generally won't easily withdraw — coming slowly and leaving slowly.

Regarding institutions' rigorous early-stage evaluation, Jessie highly condensed it into three aspects:

1. Are the funds sufficiently secure?

2. Can returns and strategies be standardized and scaled?

3. Can the platform carry a sufficiently large volume of funds?

Under this set of standards, Jessie admitted: CEXs are often the priority choice for institutions.

But on this basis of "priority," according to Jessie's recollection, the team's first intersection with Bitget actually originated from a broad net-casting effort of "unknown outcome, come take a look first":

At the time we had just completed a trading system upgrade and wanted to increase strategy capacity by expanding to more exchanges. Platforms in CoinMarketCap's top 10 were all on our list.

But as funds began live testing, this decision to "come take a look first" quickly made Jessie discover:

Beyond providing relatively attractive trading opportunities and return potential, during severe market volatility, Bitget's system stability and fund security also performed excellently; and when risk control events occurred, Bitget could respond quickly and provide fallback options.

Jessie used a very particular word to describe this cooperation: refreshing, more specifically, not putting on airs, not delaying, not passing the buck.

Jessie shared a small story to describe this feeling: currently market attention is dominated by TradFi, RWA, and US stocks, and almost all platforms advocate the concept of "one entrance to trade globally." Rich instruments easily cause backend chaos — this is a common problem among platforms — but after receiving feedback, Bitget completed adjustments in just two weeks.

More deeply, regarding the product implementation of "one entrance to trade globally," Jessie believes there is an essential difference between "surface construction" and "underlying implementation":

Many platforms' "All in One" is front-end surface construction facing users, while institutions care more about the backend "One System," which concerns whether strategies can be executed in a standardized, stable, and accurate manner. Bitget TradFi not only supports very fast speeds, but can also standardize the information formats and fields pushed by backend API interfaces, which is very clear for institutions.

Of course, the current Bitget is not yet the "perfect answer" in Jessie's eyes. She pointed out: achieving a higher degree of unification and standardization between RWA and Crypto on the backend will be an important direction for the next stage, and Bitget is also advancing optimization in this area.

Speaking up for a platform that wasn't yet that big — did you ever hesitate?

Link, who in 2018 sold 2,000 ETH and 90 BTC to buy a house, did not express regret when facing his 2018 self, but instead posed a reflective question: why was I selling while they were charging in? Was my understanding falling behind?

Many people know Link from an article with over a million views.

In this article, using a Patek Philippe watch as an anchor, he shared his decade-long experience of achieving financial leap through crypto.

But in the face of influence, Link always maintains a certain vigilance toward the KOL identity. He admitted: I prefer to call myself a blogger.

As an early industry participant, he understands the controversy surrounding the KOL role. Rewinding to the wild era of 2018: while industry regulation and credibility systems were lacking, traffic and wealth were more nakedly linked. Under such circumstances, there was indeed a group of people who stigmatized KOLs.

But there were also some who believed that "influence is not for harvesting, but for taking responsibility." Having clear bottom lines is, in Link's eyes, the essential difference between a KOL and a blogger. In his view: KOLs play with traffic, while bloggers create valuable content.

So when collaborations came knocking, Link's first reaction was always: is it worth betting my credibility on? Over time, a simple screening standard took shape:

• Serious execution: Has the product been repeatedly refined and can it withstand scrutiny?
• Brand character: Does the platform have positive values?
• Keeping pace with the times: Is the project resting on past glories?

Under this standard, when Bitget first sent merchandise and extended an interview invitation, even though Bitget wasn't that large at the time and was even dealing with some public opinion issues, Link did not hesitate much. His reasoning was direct:

Some may think Bitget likes to stir things up, but when it comes to "being seen," no one can deny its effort — effort reflected both in marketing and in products. For example, when the industry shifted toward US stocks, Bitget worked day and night to implement many features, which is very rare;

At the same time, I myself was very clear that at the time there were no financial interests between my content and Bitget. I have also criticized Bitget — praise when they do well, suggestions when they don't. That's normal. I was just sharing content I thought was worth sharing.

Beyond this candor, Link also shared his additional observation:

Chinese people have a very loud voice in the CEX sector — one could even say that in the global financial industry, this is the only field where Chinese people hold a dominant position. Every exchange has its own advantages and reason for existing.

At the end of the conversation, regarding the current KOL ecosystem, Link shared his core judgment: compared to 2018, becoming a KOL is easier now, but becoming a blogger has become harder. He added: there are many methods and paths to chase traffic, but the market rhythm is getting faster and faster, and the threshold for long-term valuable content output keeps rising.

After all, traffic may inflate, but responsibility will not shrink.

Can Bitget really go from a "small exchange" to "top three in the Chinese-speaking market"?