OKX President Hong: Leading Industry Transparency Through Responsible Innovation
TechFlow Selected TechFlow Selected
OKX President Hong: Leading Industry Transparency Through Responsible Innovation
Full text of OKX President Hong's latest speech at the Hong Kong Web3 Carnival.
Navigating Web3 tides with focused insightsOKX President Hong was invited to attend the main forum of "Hong Kong Web3 Festival 2024" on April 6, 2024, where he delivered a keynote speech titled "Responsible Innovation." Below is the full text of the speech:
Good afternoon everyone. It’s an honor to be invited once again to the Hong Kong Web3 Festival, jointly hosted by Wanxiang Blockchain Labs and HashKey Group—a great opportunity for us to come together and discuss how to build a healthy and sustainable Web3 ecosystem.
The theme of my talk today is "Responsible Innovation." But before diving into that, I’d like to share two sets of interesting data points.
The first pair is “2 years” and “7 weeks.” In 2004, it took over two years for the first gold spot ETF to reach $10 billion in assets under management (AUM). In contrast, in 2024, the first U.S.-approved bitcoin spot ETF surpassed $10 billion in AUM within just seven weeks—highlighting a striking comparison.
The second set involves on-chain transaction data. For those of us who have experienced market cycles, we know financial markets produce all kinds of signals—some are noise, while others reflect significant long-term trends. This second dataset shows that since 2019, on-chain transaction volumes have steadily increased regardless of bull or bear markets. Even if we look further back—for example, over the past decade—we see a similar trend: across Bitcoin, Ethereum, and other networks, overall on-chain transaction activity has consistently grown.
These two datasets tell us that while there is noise in the market to ignore, there are also meaningful, long-term trends reflected through price and usage behavior. I believe one such enduring trend is unfolding: technological advancement is driving more and more activities onto blockchains, attracting increasing attention.
The fact that the first bitcoin spot ETF reached the same AUM as the first gold ETF in a fraction of the time indicates growing recognition of bitcoin’s value. As the first unique global digital currency network, Bitcoin offers users unprecedented levels of transparency, control, and choice—values made possible only by blockchain's distinctive technology.
Returning to today’s theme: what does our industry truly represent? Since the inception of Bitcoin and Web3, the core ethos has always revolved around transparency, accountability, and user rights. How can we use technology, products, and solutions to deliver greater transparency, responsibility, and empowerment? That is precisely why we are here. Over the past two-plus years, beyond bringing forward the best applications as innovators, entrepreneurs, and builders, we’ve also begun learning from regulated industries—adopting their best practices to enhance transparency, responsibility, and user rights. Next, I’m honored to share OKX’s strategic direction in these areas moving forward.
First, we’re using technology to increase transparency and accountability. Since November 2022, we pioneered the Proof of Reserves (PoR) program, now widely adopted across the industry, building it into an automated, monthly technical solution. We’ve now published audited PoR reports for 17 consecutive months—and this isn’t just repetition. We actively solicit feedback, continuously improve the program, and add stronger technical support to strengthen our PoR framework. We’ve expanded asset coverage from 3 to 22 cryptocurrencies and publicly disclosed ownership of over 450,000 on-chain addresses for user verification. Moreover, we were the first in the industry to adopt zk-STARK technology, ensuring the integrity of our PoR program through cryptography and mathematics—so users can trust the system without relying on third-party intermediaries. We believe this marks a critical step toward self-regulation in the industry, leveraging technology to deliver greater transparency and meet user expectations that centralized platforms should meet traditional financial audit standards.
Second, we’ve heavily invested in Web3 technologies and launched our self-custody wallet—OKX Web3 Wallet—as a powerful, all-in-one gateway to Web3. We believe allowing users to hold their own private keys via self-custody wallets is the most effective way to reduce platform risk. Additionally, through extensive development efforts, we’ve worked hard to make the OKX Web3 Wallet accessible to as many public chains, DApps, NFT platforms, and DEX aggregators as possible. We’ve done the heavy lifting of integration so users enjoy the broadest and freest choices—all currently offered at no cost.
Like many emerging technologies, early-stage innovations often present high barriers to entry for non-technical users. Therefore, we’re committed to developing user-friendly technical solutions. We believe it’s crucial for platforms to enable broader audiences to easily and conveniently benefit from new technologies. That’s why we’re proud and excited to continue investing in features like account abstraction, MPC wallets, and social recovery—making self-custody wallets easier to use without requiring users to memorize or manage seed phrases. Even if a user loses their seed phrase, they may still regain access and control over their wallet through trusted social contacts they previously designated.
As a leading industry platform, OKX Web3 Wallet has introduced AA smart contract wallets powered by account abstraction technology, enabling users to transact and transfer assets across chains with simpler experiences, faster speeds, and lower costs. Every effort behind our product stems from one belief: when customers are given more choices in simpler and safer ways, they become better equipped to make informed decisions.
Beyond that, we also believe self-custody wallets represent a pure technological solution, which is vital for ensuring transparency. Of course, greater transparency entails greater responsibility. The OKX Web3 self-custody wallet includes multiple open-source and audited modules—anyone can view our code on GitHub. If you’re interested in security audits or wish to provide feedback on these modules, we warmly welcome your input. These modules include, but are not limited to, account generation, transaction creation, transaction signing, and MPC algorithms. We’re proud to open-source these components and will continue releasing more modules to the community for review and feedback. We believe that as a software- and technology-driven platform, offering greater transparency means taking on greater responsibility—one that creates more value for our customers and the wider community.
As a technology platform, while applying cutting-edge tech to our infrastructure, we also recognize our immense responsibility as a centralized platform handling user assets. Thus, we believe establishing robust internal controls is essential. We’ve been actively pursuing licenses in key strategic jurisdictions—not only because they matter for our global operations, but because we see the licensing process itself as a critical component in building internal checks and balances.
Over the past 12 months, we’ve received conditional approval and licensing from Dubai’s VARA and principle approval for a Major Payment Institution (MPI) license in Singapore—important milestones we’re proud of, though not endpoints. They validate the work we’ve done so far, and we’re confident we’re heading in the right direction. More importantly, as an organization, we’ll continue strengthening governance, refining operations, collaborating with regulators and authorities, and deploying technology and tools to combat financial crime collectively.
As a centralized platform, we remain committed to using advanced technological methods to ensure transparency with users, partners, regulators, and key stakeholders—an essential responsibility we take seriously. One of our core global strategies is to operate transparently and responsibly while empowering our customers and stakeholders with appropriate rights, enabling us to serve and contribute locally. Hong Kong holds significant strategic importance for us. We’re honored to be part of Hong Kong’s Web3 ecosystem and to collaborate with numerous partners, stakeholders, and policymakers in building it. We’re committed to localizing our presence, contributing meaningfully, and ensuring long-term investment and compliance.
As a major player in the industry, we’re proud to be part of this journey and will continue striving toward building a healthy, sustainable Web3 ecosystem that generates real value. We look forward to using technology to bring greater transparency, responsibility, and empowerment to users and the industry alike, co-creating a brighter future. I am highly optimistic about what lies ahead. Thank you for your attention.
Disclaimer
This article represents the personal views of the author and does not reflect the opinions of OKX. This article is not intended to provide any of the following advice, including but not limited to: (i) investment advice or recommendations; (ii) an offer or solicitation to buy, sell, or hold digital assets; or (iii) financial, accounting, legal, or tax advice. Holding digital assets (including stablecoins and NFTs) involves high risk, prices may fluctuate significantly, and assets may lose all value. You should carefully consider whether trading or holding digital assets is suitable for you based on your financial situation. For questions regarding your specific circumstances, please consult your legal/tax/investment professional.
Join TechFlow official community to stay tuned
Telegram:https://t.me/TechFlowDaily
X (Twitter):https://x.com/TechFlowPost
X (Twitter) EN:https://x.com/BlockFlow_News
OKX
