OKX Star Token2049 Speech: Everything on-chain, self-custody is the future
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OKX Star Token2049 Speech: Everything on-chain, self-custody is the future
The future of finance is not in the vault, but in your crypto wallet. It's a beautiful future.
Navigating Web3 tides with focused insights
Have you ever imagined what the future of finance might look like?
On October 1, Star Xu, founder and CEO of OKX, was invited to speak at the Token2049 Summit in Singapore, delivering a keynote address titled "Everything Onchain, Self-Custody Is the Future." He believes that the next era of finance will not be defined by institutions holding assets on behalf of users, but by users truly owning and managing their own assets on the blockchain. Just as the internet evolved from closed systems to open protocols, so too is financial infrastructure now fully ready for an open, onchain future. He emphasized that as the era of "trust first, verify later" comes to an end, finance is shifting toward "verify first, trust later"—and in this context, self-custody is the future. The future of finance is no longer in vaults, but in your crypto wallet.
Later, he reiterated his speech points in a post on X: "The future of finance won't be decided behind closed doors—it will be built onchain, openly and transparently. At TOKEN2049, I shared our vision: everything onchain, prioritize self-custody, verify before trusting. Within the OKX ecosystem, we are building this future block by block, transaction by transaction. Now, it's just the beginning."
Let’s step into Star’s perspective and glimpse the future of finance: Why will everything move onchain? Why is self-custody the future? And how is OKX participating in building the future of finance? Below is Star’s full speech at Token2049 (edited for clarity):
Why Will Everything Move Onchain?
Good afternoon, everyone. Twelve years ago, when I founded OKX, Bitcoin felt like a magic bean from a fairy tale or a game token. Back then, we hosted events similar to Token2049 and gave away hundreds of bitcoins—something we clearly can’t do today, especially now that Bitcoin ETFs have surpassed gold ETFs in market cap, and public blockchains like Ethereum and Solana have become the foundational infrastructure for decentralized applications.
The next era of finance will no longer rely on institutions holding assets for users, but on users themselves owning and managing their assets directly on the blockchain.
Looking back at history, if we examine the evolution of mobile devices, we see a parallel between open and closed systems in the mobile communications industry. Traditional giants like Nokia and Motorola built their own hardware, operating systems, and apps. But when new companies with open systems emerged—Apple and Android—those closed-system incumbents rapidly declined within just a few years, nearly vanishing altogether.
Now, if we turn our attention to traditional finance, we find that most of it still operates as a closed system. In contrast, decentralized finance (DeFi) is fundamentally different—it’s an open system: transactions are transparent, rules are verifiable, and anyone can build their own applications on top of it.
So, what exactly defines a true onchain system? There are four core principles: First, it must be publicly transparent. Second, it must allow anyone to build upon it—enabling infinite innovation. Third, it cannot depend on any single service provider; users must be free to migrate between providers. Fourth, it must be global in scope.
I believe that in the near future, we’ll see more and more assets moving onchain. Today, we already have cryptocurrencies and tokenized securities onchain. In the future, bonds, real-world assets (RWA), payments, and other financial instruments will all gradually transition onto the blockchain. In short, everything will go onchain.
How Far Is Onchain Finance From Us?
So, how far is onchain finance from us? I believe the infrastructure is already fully ready.
Twelve years ago, the Bitcoin network could process only about seven transactions per minute. Today, many Layer 1 blockchains can handle thousands of transactions per second, while Ethereum-based Layer 2 solutions can process tens of thousands of transactions per second.
At the same time, crypto assets themselves have continued to evolve. Bitcoin has become “digital gold,” and stablecoins have proven to be one of the most successful crypto applications over the past twelve years.
More importantly, we’re seeing more and more crypto companies learning how to operate sustainably within regulatory frameworks. Countries around the world are actively advancing crypto legislation—for example, the U.S. has proposed the GENIUS Act, the EU has introduced MiCA, and Singapore’s MAS has also made significant legislative efforts.
Why Is Self-Custody the Future?
Throughout human history, people worked hard to earn money and kept it at home—sometimes even under the mattress. Back then, we didn’t rely on agents to hold our assets. But in today’s financial system, we face numerous “agents” and must constantly assess which ones are trustworthy. The typical logic is to trust first, then verify. Yet, when such an “agent” goes bankrupt, users often recover only a fraction of their assets—if they’re lucky.
In the world of blockchain, self-custody changes everything. It enables users to “verify first, trust later.”
Users can independently research these decentralized applications: How much reserve do they hold? How many transactions have they processed? For lending protocols, is the collateral ratio healthy? In this process, users “verify first, trust later”—a reversal from the previous “trust first, verify later” model.
Moreover, self-custody does not mean insecure or non-compliant. Today, we already have advanced onchain monitoring technologies that enable crypto companies to perform anti-money laundering tasks even better than traditional financial institutions. While traditional firms can only see data within their own platforms, in the crypto world, we can leverage AI and big data to monitor every onchain transaction in real time.
Additionally, technologies like multi-signature wallets and account abstraction make crypto wallets as secure as bank accounts. This year, OKX developed a real-time monitoring system capable of blocking hackers from using our wallet services.
How Is OKX Building the Future of Finance?
As a company now twelve years old, OKX has contributed significantly to the development of onchain financial infrastructure.
First, OKX CEX has become one of the most liquid exchanges globally and has obtained regulatory licenses in key jurisdictions including the United States, the European Union, the UAE, Singapore, and Australia.
Second, we’ve always placed user self-custody at the heart of our vision. OKX Pay is a compliant self-custody wallet that allows users to send funds as easily as sending a text message.
Furthermore, we’ve built the Layer 2 network X Layer to support onchain transactions for OKX Pay, enabling true peer-to-peer cross-border transfers for users worldwide.
Beyond that, we’ve partnered with numerous industry players to advance onchain finance. In sports, we sponsor the McLaren F1 team and Manchester City Football Club, bringing the crypto vision to hundreds of millions of sports fans. In finance and technology, we collaborate with leading firms like Circle, Mastercard, Tether, and Paxos, as well as deeply integrating with native crypto projects such as Aptos, Sui, Uniswap, and 1inch. Through OKX Pay and X Layer, these partnerships make our ecosystem more open and efficient.
We’ve also partnered with influential individuals worldwide, sharing hundreds of millions of dollars in node rewards annually. To support innovation, we launched the OKX Vision Fund to help more startups deploy their products on X Layer, accelerating the adoption and development of onchain finance.
Therefore, I believe the “onchain finance era” doesn’t belong solely to OKX—it belongs to everyone, and should be built by all of us together.
The future of finance isn’t in vaults—it’s in your crypto wallet. This is a beautiful future.
Thank you all!
Disclaimer
This article is for informational purposes only. The views expressed herein are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the positions of OKX. This article is not intended to provide (i) investment advice or investment recommendations; (ii) an offer or solicitation to buy, sell, or hold digital assets; or (iii) financial, accounting, legal, or tax advice. We do not guarantee the accuracy, completeness, or usefulness of the information provided. Holding digital assets (including stablecoins and NFTs) involves high risk and may experience significant price fluctuations. Past performance is not indicative of future results. You should carefully consider whether trading or holding digital assets is suitable for you based on your financial situation. Please consult your legal/tax/investment professional for your specific circumstances. You are solely responsible for understanding and complying with applicable local laws and regulations.
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