Five stories behind the growth of Bitget.

Bitget was established in 2018 and is now five years old. We have been through various ups and downs in the cryptocurrency industry. Looking back on the past five years, we have had both joys and sorrows, but we still have confidence in the industry's development prospects. On the occasion of our fifth anniversary, we hope to share five stories behind our growth with everyone, review the past, summarize our experience, and hope to give those who are still struggling in the industry some confidence during this bear market. We believe that our past hard work will not be in vain, and we will wait together for a new dawn.

Entrepreneurship in a Bear Market: Persistence and Trade-offs

The Bitget founding team comes from the financial industry. In 2015, they began to invest in funds, focusing on the TMT industry and occasionally encountering blockchain startup projects. At that time, blockchain was seen as a "tulip bubble" in the financial world. Fast forward to the summer of 2018, Ethereum brought a wave of encryption, and early Bitget members began to study the Bitcoin white paper and the Ethereum ecosystem. These novel ideas impressed them and made them believe that encrypted assets would play an important role in the future world, and even the unbanked population could benefit equally. Seeing the development prospects and huge opportunities in the cryptocurrency industry, our founding team started their entrepreneurial journey with their own funds of several million dollars.

Starting anything is difficult, and our beginning can be described as hellish. We encountered a bear market when we started our business. We tried both spot and futures trading, explored many niche areas, but didn't make much progress. At that time, our team was small, with only a few dozen people. At the end of 2018, we continued to explore the development direction of futures trading. We found that due to the small size of our team, we couldn't handle both spot and futures trading. After discussion among the founders, we decided to selectively give up some businesses and concentrate our efforts and resources on developing key businesses. Therefore, we temporarily suspended our spot trading business in 2019. The company continued to lose money for a year, and our startup capital was almost depleted.

Transfer appeared in July 2019. After researching market demand, we found that users were actually very interested in positive contracts and officially launched this type of product. This innovative product combined with the market situation at the time, and the trading volume suddenly exceeded 100 million US dollars. That night, although team members were scattered all over the place, everyone celebrated this breakthrough remotely. After more than a year of entrepreneurship, Bitget finally began to make a profit. To thank employees for their persistence, the company issued bonuses and continuously improved its products, business, market, backend, and personnel and legal affairs.

Every time I listen to the old employees recount this experience, it makes me feel like I have also experienced the challenges and struggles of the early days of entrepreneurship. Perseverance is the pillar of faith, but knowing how to choose is also one of the key factors that Bitget can survive. Focusing on the contract business, paying attention to user needs, and leveraging the market uptrend in 2019, we were able to gain momentum. In 2021, we believe that the foundation of the contract business has gradually stabilized, so we have restarted the spot business. The team has been quietly working hard, like a sweeping monk, and sticking to their beliefs.

Retreat and practice to optimize the follow-up product

If we compare Bitget's growth journey to a climb, the success of the forward contract in 2019 can be seen as our first milestone, like a solid stepping stone that stabilized our foothold. The subsequent launch of the copy trading feature is like a climbing stick in the climb. After continuous optimization and polishing, this feature has gradually become our flagship product.

As one of the practitioners in the encryption industry, Bitget has always been committed to popularizing encryption knowledge. However, we have also found that some novice users need more time to understand and learn about the encryption industry and how to trade. They can only try and make mistakes in each transaction, with some people exchanging "loss" for "experience"; while others leave and give the encryption industry a Scam label.

Bitget hopes to change this situation. We believe that if experienced traders can share their mature trading strategies that have been verified by the market, and newcomers can simply and quickly follow and imitate these strategies, and use the tools that were originally designed for professional investors, this will be a win-win situation. Therefore, since the end of 2019, we have been developing copy trading function and decided to promote this product vigorously to establish a bridge between mature traders and beginners. In May 2020, this function was officially launched. After the launch, it immediately attracted hundreds of traders and was warmly welcomed by users.

Although the initial attempts had good results, there were still many shortcomings in the first-generation copy trading function that needed improvement. At that time, our startup team encountered a bottleneck period after promoting copy trading for a period of time, because the function was not as smooth to use as it is now, and only users who were very interested in this function would spend time studying it, while others found it too complicated and gave up. Some users who kindly recommended us also complained, "Your copy trading product is useful for investment, but not very user-friendly." As the saying goes, "The great way is easy, but people prefer the side paths." We believe that for a product to truly become popular, it needs to be down-to-earth, simple and easy to use.

Therefore, on a weekend at the end of 2020, our management team and product managers held a "closed-door retreat" at a remote hotel to conduct a systematic study and summary of the copy-trading function. Over the course of several days, we repeatedly discussed the retention of different functions and ultimately decided to remove some less commonly used features in order to make the copy-trading product more user-friendly and intuitive. Since then, we have been continuously optimizing and iterating the copy-trading function, expanding to spot copy-trading and launching supporting tools such as the Strategy Plaza to provide users with a richer trading experience.

Empathizing with Messi's Growth Journey and Witnessing His Peak Moments Together

In 2022, the World Cup became a global event that attracted worldwide attention. Major cryptocurrency companies actively collaborated with football teams or football stars to further promote the popularization of the cryptocurrency industry and enhance brand awareness. At that time, Bitget's business had already developed to a certain scale, and we were striving to build our brand, hoping to let more people understand the cryptocurrency industry, our mission, and goals. Therefore, we decided to collaborate with a top football superstar.

We chose Messi for two key reasons: his reputation and his growth experience. Messi's achievements and abilities have been proven through brilliant games and numerous trophies. However, we value his reputation more. For many years, he has maintained the image of a good father, husband, and captain. What's more, we see the shadow of Bitget's own growth in Messi's growth experience.

Actually, at that time, besides Messi, we also considered other national football teams. Other football teams were also strong and had the potential to win the World Cup again. After further understanding of different teams, among many options, we finally chose Messi. When discussing within our team, we decided to conduct a small survey and found that we had many employees who were fans of Messi and could empathize with him.

Although Messi has the talent for football, his physical condition is not outstanding. During his childhood, he faced many setbacks: poverty and inadequate physical conditions. However, he not only overcame the disadvantages, but also became a generation of football superstars through hard training and strong willpower, inspiring and warming countless people. This story has many similarities with our exchange's entrepreneurial experience. We founded the exchange during the bear market in 2018, experienced difficult times, did not experience huge dividends, and did not have easy days. Every step was full of challenges and tests. However, we persisted through the baptism of market fluctuations and gradually developed and grew, just like Messi, a "small-town youth", who trained hard to develop excellent skills.

His qualities of perseverance, hard work, and constant self-improvement are exactly the values that Bitget advocates and pursues. The collaboration with Messi not only helps to increase Bitget's visibility, but also allows us to convey the potential and future of the cryptocurrency industry to a wider audience. This partnership represents Bitget's firm belief that in the future of the cryptocurrency world, we should not only pursue commercial success, but also uphold noble values, grow and influence the world like Messi.

The World Cup final between Argentina and France is still exciting to think back on. When the game reached the 77th minute, Argentina led France 2-0, and I thought the game was already in the bag. However, in the 78th minute, Mbappe scored a penalty, and in the 81st minute, France threatened again. Mbappe and his teammates completed a wonderful cooperation and scored a volley to tie the score at 2-2. In the end, Argentina won the shootout and won the World Cup trophy.

The experience of Messi leading the Argentine team to win the championship at the Qatar World Cup is like our entrepreneurial process at Bitget, full of passion, emotion, and tears, and it is a moment that will never be forgotten. This story inspires us and tells us that no matter how big the challenge is, as long as we persist, we will eventually realize our dreams. Like Messi, we are also pursuing our own glory.

FTX Crisis: Earnestly Earning Customer Trust

In 2022, the encryption industry staged a dazzling drama, among which the most eye-catching was the fall of FTX. The acquisition rumors between Binance and FTX sparked a fierce war of words, and FTX's eventual bankruptcy was the climax of the climax.

On November 8th, while I was preparing to fly to London to attend the token2049 conference on the East Coast of the United States, my phone pushed a news that "Binance announced the acquisition of FTX". I quickly browsed the information of SBF and CZ on Twitter, and their attitudes were not the same. SBF's words seemed to declare that the acquisition had been completed, but CZ did not confirm it. At that moment, I realized a key issue: FTX's problem may be more serious than everyone imagined, otherwise SBF would not seek cooperation with CZ, who initially sparked this controversy. I immediately sent a tweet to share our views.

https://twitter.com/GracyBitget/status/1590042346632409088?s=20

Before boarding, I instructed the team to follow up on this matter, especially requesting the R&D team to track the reserve fund proof. During the more than six-hour flight, I repeatedly pondered a question: If FTX really goes bankrupt, where will the cryptocurrency industry go? And as a centralized exchange, how should we regain our footing and regain the trust of our users?

After arriving in London, I attended the Token2049 conference with representatives from Binance, including Helen Hai, and other exchanges such as Gemini. At the time, the situation between Binance and FTX was still unclear, and even Helen Hai was unable to provide a definitive response. We received numerous questions from the audience, which was one of the biggest challenges I have faced since joining the cryptocurrency industry.

Given FTX's persistent liquidity issues and attempts to conceal them, we have decided to take a series of measures to increase transparency of the exchange's assets, help rebuild market and user trust and confidence. On November 9, 2022, we announced that we would disclose Bitget's reserve proof within a month, and subsequently fulfilled this commitment. In December, we launched a reserve proof page, which detailed our reserve situation. At the same time, we increased our original $200 million protection fund to $300 million, providing users with a higher level of protection. In addition, we established a $5 million "Builders Fund" to support users such as KOLs, KOCs, and traders affected by FTX's collapse.

Through this series of measures, we hope to make users and the market understand that there are still builders like Bitget actively working in the market. In the darkest moments, we need more unity and mutual assistance, and we firmly believe that dawn is coming. Our efforts have been successful, and in such a volatile market environment, the number of Bitget users continues to increase, and their trust in us is constantly being strengthened.

Marathon Mentality: Going the Extra Mile

As a long-distance running enthusiast, I enjoy the solitude and thinking time that comes with running alone. The encryption industry is the fastest developing and most fast-paced field I have ever been involved in. In this industry, the rise and fall of a company often happens overnight, or even in an instant.

In this environment, it is especially important to stay true to our original intentions, because only by sticking to the right path can we avoid losing our direction. Many people have asked me how Bitget became a top global trading platform. I believe there are two directions worth pondering: what we do and how we do it.

Today, the competition among cryptocurrency trading platforms has expanded beyond the platforms themselves and into the entire cryptocurrency ecosystem. Therefore, in addition to centralized exchanges, we also plan to extensively expand into diversified businesses, including decentralized wallets, investment incubation, and media development.

Accurately grasping the industry direction is crucial, which is the key prerequisite for the survival and development of the company. However, in my opinion, in the world of encryption filled with top experts and smart people, attitude and mindset may be more important.

During my time working at Bitget, I deeply felt that we have been moving forward with the mentality of a marathon runner. Once, while discussing the FTX incident with an industry veteran, he commented, "FTX is like a 100-meter sprinter, fast and impressive, but the road to enterprise development is more than 100 meters long. Similarly starting with derivatives, Bitget is more like a marathon runner. At first, it may not be dazzling, but composure, patience, and persistence will forge true value in the baptism of time." I am pleased that people have this view of Bitget because we have always adhered to the concept of "long-termism" and firmly believe that this is a necessary quality for successful platforms and projects in the industry.

Psychology has a happiness paradox, that is, directly pursuing happiness is often difficult to achieve, and happiness is more like a byproduct of effort. When you do your best, persist in doing the right thing, and make efforts to achieve it, you will gain a sense of satisfaction. The same is true for company development and success, which cannot be achieved simply by pursuing them. Like a marathon runner, you need to have patience, be able to endure loneliness, continue to think, not lose your original intention, and focus on the work at hand, pay attention to every step under your feet. Whether you succeed or fail, we can fully tap our potential, and true happiness and growth will come unexpectedly.

Gracy Chen

Bitget CEO

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