OKX Star: The industry is about to enter the "crypto-finance era"
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OKX Star: The industry is about to enter the "crypto-finance era"
"The 'X' in OKX stands for infinite possibilities. We believe cryptocurrency will sweep the globe, and self-custody is the future." — Star, CEO of OKX
Navigating Web3 tides with focused insights
On October 10, 2024, at the "Dubai's New Choice: The Future of OKX and Blockchain Innovation" event held at the Museum of the Future in Dubai, OKX officially announced it has become the first global cryptocurrency exchange to receive a full operational license from the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
This milestone not only marks OKX’s leading position in global compliance but also sets a new benchmark for the regulated development of the crypto industry, becoming a memorable chapter in its history. This achievement undoubtedly injects fresh momentum into compliant operations across global crypto markets and offers valuable experience and insights for the future path of regulatory compliance within the cryptocurrency sector.
During the event, OKX CEO Star delivered a keynote speech titled "Celebrating the OKX Dubai Launch," sharing insights on OKX's commitment to global compliance, the brand's story and global expansion, product lines, Dubai as a strategic choice, and the evolution of the crypto industry. He emphasized the critical role of compliance in advancing the crypto industry and reiterated OKX’s dedication to setting global compliance standards and fulfilling its responsibilities. He also highlighted how OKX will continue delivering safer and more convenient crypto services to users in Dubai and worldwide through technological innovation and robust products.
Below is the full transcript of Star’s speech:
Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the launch of OKX Dubai. We are honored today to have our users, partners, and regulators with us to witness this significant moment together.
1. OKX’s Commitment to Global Compliance
I’d like to start by talking about compliance. To date, OKX has built a robust compliance program covering both regulated and unregulated entities. We use Financial Action Task Force (FATF) standards as our global compliance baseline—this includes user due diligence, politically exposed person screening, user risk rating, and monitoring and reporting of suspicious activities. When we enter different global markets such as Dubai, we fully comply with 100% of local regulatory requirements. Therefore, the full operational license granted by Dubai’s regulator reflects great trust in the OKX team. I believe this is not just a marketing highlight, but an important responsibility we carry to uphold high standards in the crypto industry—we don’t want to let down our users or regulators.
Next, let me briefly introduce OKX. Founded in 2012, we’ve now been in operation for 12 years. We currently operate over 15 global offices with more than 4,500 employees and have obtained licenses in many markets including Dubai, Europe, the U.S., Japan, and Singapore.
2. OKX’s Three Main Business Lines
We have three primary business lines: OKX Simple, OKX Exchange, and OKX Web3. First, most users are familiar with OKX Exchange—a powerful trading platform. Within a single account, we offer spot trading, margin trading, futures contracts, and options trading. However, we tailor available features according to local regulations when operating in different global markets.
Second, OKX Web3 is a gateway to the decentralized world. To date, we support hundreds of different blockchains. We’ve built technical infrastructure capable of real-time monitoring and parsing data formats across chains, enabling strong products such as our heterogeneous multi-chain wallet, multi-chain decentralized exchange, multi-chain DeFi aggregator, and multi-chain NFT marketplace.
Third, OKX Simple is one of our new strategic initiatives. We offer fundamental products such as buying and selling cryptocurrencies, and we’ll also roll out innovative features like Web3 payments and Web3 cards—more details on these shortly.
3. A Strong Commitment to Contributing to Dubai’s Crypto Community
Now, I want to talk about OKX’s firm commitment to Dubai: we’ve established a regional headquarters here and will continue investing and expanding our talent team in Dubai. We will also continuously monitor and test the effectiveness of our compliance program, and we hope to make meaningful contributions to Dubai’s crypto community.
OKX offers a tailored, comprehensive product suite for the Dubai market, including AED fast purchase options, AED order books, and USDC and USDT order books. Additionally, we provide derivatives services for institutions and qualified investors.
In the future, we plan to launch many new programs and innovative products for both institutional and retail users.
For institutional users, for example: first, we are partnering with top global banks and asset management firms using a tri-party model that allows institutions to deposit USD into our bank accounts. Second, we offer institutions the ability to deposit USD and receive USDC. Third, institutions can earn base APY through Treasury Bills. Fourth, entity-level and global-level Proof of Reserves.
As many know, we were among the first global crypto exchanges to introduce Proof of Reserve (POR). Now, we’re extending POR to the local level. In the coming months, we will roll out entity-level Proof of Reserves. For example, users and regulators in Dubai will be able to clearly and transparently see the amount of user assets within our OKX system and the volume of assets custodied by OKX.
We also have plans for retail users. We are launching a self-custody wallet for retail users, equipped with compliance controls such as KYC transaction monitoring. This is a multi-signature wallet—users complete our registration process and can create a wallet with one click. Private keys are generated based on passkeys, offering a simple and user-friendly experience. We call this product Smart Account. Based on the Smart Account infrastructure, we will build many decentralized applications, such as Web3 payments and Web3 cards. We also aim to adopt a technology called ZK-KYC, allowing our KYC and wallet to share verified credentials with other DApps. This means any DApp integrated with our wallet can choose which types of users they wish to serve—or even which types to exclude.
To this day, the user experience of OKX Web3 and MetaMask wallets still isn’t good enough. But we believe that if crypto finance is truly going to succeed, there must be major innovation and transformation at the wallet layer.
4. The Crypto Finance Industry Is Entering a New Phase
Finally, I’d like to spend a few minutes sharing our perspective on the industry.
It’s been nearly 15 years since Satoshi Nakamoto created Bitcoin in 2009. Looking back at the past 15 years, the crypto industry has made significant progress. For instance, first, the industry has successfully created digital assets. Particularly this year, with the U.S. SEC approving Bitcoin ETFs, Bitcoin has emerged as a highly successful asset. Second, Ethereum technology—including Layer1 and Layer2 solutions—has become foundational infrastructure for decentralized application development. Third, early-stage applications like Aave, Compound, and Uniswap have all proven highly successful.
But people often ask: why has crypto adoption progressed so slowly? Our view is: first, in the past 15 years, there was no widely adopted on-chain onboarding currency. Second, wallet usability and security remain problematic—for example, current wallets like MetaMask or OKX Web3 require users to safeguard their private keys for life. Third, compliant infrastructure is still lacking in on-chain financial systems. If you want to launch a compliant financial application on blockchain, regulators will ask two basic questions: who are your users? And how do you monitor and manage illicit activity on your platform? You might answer, “My users are OKX Web3 or MetaMask users,” but that’s insufficient.
In recent years, we’ve seen progress in solving these three issues. For example, stablecoin issuers like USDT and USDC have achieved significant success. At the wallet level, leading companies like OKX and Coinbase are developing solutions that bring Web2-like experiences to self-custody wallets—users no longer need to worry about protecting their private keys. Moreover, the industry is learning how to establish solid compliance procedures. I believe that today, many crypto companies have reached compliance standards comparable to traditional finance—and in some cases, even surpassed those of the banking sector.
Therefore, I believe that given this industry evolution, the next few years should be known as the “crypto finance era.” With licenses and compliance in place, industry players can now offer seamless fiat on- and off-ramps. The user experience of Web3 wallets and stablecoins will become increasingly widespread. Tokenization of real-world assets will thus enter a new phase. We will see every user able to participate in decentralized finance (DeFi) using self-custody wallets. I love the saying: “Not your key, not your money”—but that doesn’t mean without compliance. No matter how the crypto industry evolves, it will ultimately be grounded in financial regulation. We believe that in the coming years, the crypto finance industry will enter a new stage where compliance and licensing enable seamless fiat integration and services. At that point, Web3 wallets and stablecoins will become increasingly popular.
Finally, I’d like to close with a tweet I posted earlier: “The ‘X’ in OKX stands for infinite possibilities. We believe crypto will sweep the globe, and self-custody is the future.” Thank you.
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