Source: OKX

On January 24, 2026, OKX Founder and CEO Star attended the "New Year's Eve Dinner" event via video link, sharing the latest insights sincerely. OKX's "New Year's Eve Dinner" is a special event hosted by OKX for industry builders to celebrate the Lunar New Year.

Below is the full transcript of Star's speech (organized):

Year after year, we hope to continue this event. We look forward to embarking on the future journey with influencers, KOLs, and partners, growing together in the Crypto and blockchain industry for the next decade.

Let me briefly share some of my reflections from the past year.

Seeing Trends Clearly in Industry Evolution

I have spoken on many occasions about how to view the Crypto and blockchain industry. From the birth of Bitcoin in 2008 to the present, this industry has gone through fifteen to sixteen years. When Bitcoin was first introduced, we mostly saw it as "fun tokens" or game coins. At that time, we did not truly understand what blockchain was, where this industry would evolve, how regulation would progress, or the extent of applications—no one knew.

As the industry evolved, Bitcoin, initially based on blockchain, could only do one simple thing: issue a token. Later, Ethereum appeared, stating that blockchain technology could not only issue tokens but also support various "app-like" applications, positioning itself as the "operating system of blockchain."

Over the years, everyone has worked together, including us at OKX, playing a significant role in the Ethereum ecosystem. Today, Ethereum has indeed become the primary platform for DApps, with many financial-grade applications built on it. At the same time, Ethereum is also continuously evolving towards high performance, and many high-performance chains have emerged on the market, such as Solana. While our OKX is still in the early stages of exploring X Layer and is not mature enough, I believe it will achieve great success in the future.

As the industry has developed to a certain stage, it has attracted increasing attention from regulatory bodies. Initially, starting in 2017, regulators had a more suppressive attitude towards the entire industry. However, after several years of development, I have noticed some core trends undergoing changes.

The first trend is that regulatory agencies are beginning to gradually realize that the statement "Bitcoin is equivalent to a money laundering tool" is not valid. Any financial system can be abused, and the key is the potential for abuse, hence the need for governance and management. In the activities on the blockchain, illegal behavior actually accounts for a very small part; it is more like a global, open, fair, and transparent financial system.

The second trend is that an increasing number of young people—post-90s, post-95s, post-00s—have grown up hearing the story of Bitcoin since birth. My kids asked me what Bitcoin was many years ago. Different generations' understanding of "where to securely hold assets" is changing. People of my age, if asked where to securely hold money, might say a large bank, a mature financial system with more modern and user-friendly products. But when you talk to the younger generation, many of them might think that using tools like OKX Wallet, Coinbase Wallet to manage assets is safer and more convenient because it is transparent and verifiable on-chain, and the user experience is getting better.

When it comes to products like stablecoins, people worry about rug pulls. Taking USDG as an example, if it is under the regulatory frameworks of the EU, Singapore, and possibly in the future, the U.S., logically, this possibility is very low. Looking further into custody issues: in a self-custody model, if you back up your private key, you can import the assets into any other wallet—you can take the assets away at any time, and we have no capability to take your assets. Custody mainly lies in the exchange system. OKX has weathered many storms over the years; whether it's corporate governance structure, board governance, or the increasing number of compliance licenses we have globally, I believe we are becoming more and more formal and taking on more and more responsibilities.

Against this backdrop, in the past four to five years, the industry has experienced a very intense collision. On one hand, some people question or even oppose cryptocurrency; on the other hand, more and more people are starting to use Bitcoin or other crypto assets. In this process, Crypto is moving towards a brand-new era.

More importantly, Crypto is aligning with "future trends." Starting from the United States, the trend of Crypto entering the mainstream has extended worldwide: countries and regions such as the UK, EU, Japan, Singapore, etc., are beginning to view Crypto as an important direction that needs to be faced, built, and incorporated into governance frameworks in the long term, even gradually rising to a "national level" competitive landscape and layout.

Adhere to Long-Termism, Care for the Reputation of the Crypto Industry

So, what I want to say to all of you is: adhere to long-termism.

What did you miss in the past, and what will you do in the future? To answer "what to do in the future," you need to trust in the industry, companies, and institutions, discard the noise, and return to the trend itself. Based on the trends I just talked about:

First, the development of technology has evolved from initially being able to only create Tokens, to the Ethereum era where DApps became possible, and now to today, where a wide range of more complex, more financialized, and larger-scale applications such as Real-World Assets (RWA) can be built.

Second is the change in demographics and generational perspectives. More and more young people are starting to believe that in some aspects, Crypto is more secure, more trustworthy, and has a brighter future than traditional methods.

The third trend is that governments and regulatory bodies worldwide are systematically promoting the development of this industry and related industries.

Based on these three major trends, you must definitely create a clear plan for yourself for the next five or ten years. This plan cannot be swayed by market sentiment every day or influenced by various noises. What harms you is not the opportunity but the noise. In life, you must have a basic strategy, and I strongly urge everyone to establish their own long-term strategy. I truly believe that if you start thinking seriously about it now and take action, you will thank your present self in the coming years.

You will find that everyone who comes into this world has their own opportunities. The so-called "I was born to do something useful" is often not because you can't do it, but because you have been disturbed by too many irrelevant voices. Based on the three points I just mentioned, choose your "vehicle." Once the strategy is set, you should learn to "shut down" — block out temptations, ignore short-term fluctuations, and even forget about this money for a period of time.

I hope to instill in everyone a belief: as a member of the blockchain industry, belief in the industry itself.

The second thing I want to talk about is based on the stage of development the entire industry is in. If you hold Bitcoin, Ethereum, or even a larger position, you must cherish and protect this industry. Because today's Crypto is completely different from the past. Over the past years, our industry has been questioned, disparaged, and even subjected to extreme suppression. In addition to the stage of development of the industry itself, there is another important reason: irresponsible remarks from some so-called "industry leaders" who have used frivolous and exaggerated language for a long time to describe this industry, seriously misleading the public.

When we use terms like "100x" and "all in" every day to describe the industry we are engaged in, you should seriously consider how governments and regulators will view you. When you use "all or nothing" and "get rich quick" to define your career, you are fundamentally harming and devaluing the industry, while also destroying the long-term value of the assets you hold. This is essentially "shooting yourself in the foot."

On the other side of the world, what you see is a completely different scene: Stablecoin legislation is advancing, representatives of the Crypto industry are entering the White House to sign bills, numerous Crypto companies are going public on the NYSE and NASDAQ. In many countries and regions, Crypto has long been mainstream, and industry practitioners are gradually standing on the same level as cutting-edge industries such as AI and autonomous driving, receiving the respect they deserve.

I want to say that if you are only in this industry to make money but do not receive respect, then this kind of success is very fragile. Wealth, if lacking social recognition and institutional support, is easily denied and settled. Respect is not given by others; it is earned by yourself. The respect in this industry also requires each of us practitioners to jointly uphold.

What we are engaged in is an industry that is technology-driven, using technology to eliminate unfairness and allow more people to enjoy high-quality financial technology services. Whether it's a company or you KOLs, Influencers, essentially, all are participants, builders, and beneficiaries of this industry. Since we are a community, we need to jointly maintain the industry's reputation and work together to earn genuine respect from the outside world.

Jokes can be made occasionally, but if extreme and emotional words are continuously and repeatedly displayed on the homepage to describe trading and the industry itself, you should think: How will regulators view this? How will users and the world view this? Therefore, whether it's a leading company, industry institution, or KOL, each has its responsibilities. Leading companies should shoulder the responsibilities of leading companies, KOLs should have the self-awareness of KOLs, and platforms also have their responsibilities. Since we are all participants in the industry's dividends, we should even more jointly maintain the industry's reputation to earn long-term, sustainable respect.

OKX's Three Major Business Directions in 2026

Next, I would like to talk about some overall plans for OKX in 2026. These plans are also based on several core judgments I have repeatedly mentioned: technological development, application development, and the evolution of regulatory and political environments.

First, at the transactional and service level, we hope to provide a more diverse, user-friendly, and convenient Exchange service within the global compliance and regulatory framework. Whether it's Crypto, stocks, or other asset forms in the market, we will continue to expand service boundaries under the premise of legal compliance, allowing users to have more choices.

Second, bringing more assets onto the chain. We already have xBTC, and in the future, there will be more 'X' series products, covering cross-chain assets, RWA, and even real-world assets like stocks. Through OKX's X Layer and Web3 wallet, we hope to make them a unified carrier of multi-assets, becoming a gateway for users to enter the world of on-chain assets.

Third, OKX Pay payment service. Since the launch of this product last year, feedback has been mixed, and we acknowledge that it is still relatively crude and will continue to be upgraded in the future. Currently, in multiple countries and regions such as Brazil, Europe, and Singapore, we have connected with local banking systems. Even in areas where bank card services are temporarily unavailable, we hope to allow ordinary users to easily manage digital assets through a more user-friendly Web3 wallet, enabling them to complete asset management, transfers to friends or merchants, and other daily payment needs without complex operations. Our goal is to make OKX able to provide entry-level services for ordinary users to easily manage digital assets.

Overall, in 2026, OKX will focus on three main directions: regulatory-compliant trading services, multi-asset on-chain infrastructure, and payment and wallet experience.

In addition, there is another very important aspect, which is our partners, all of you here today. I have made a clear request to the company: OKX must get closer to its partners. We will continue to stay low-key, but low-key does not mean distant. Whether you are a KOL, partner, market maker, or channel partner, we will respect you more and explore more win-win opportunities together.

We will continue to optimize the KOL Program and Affiliate Program, while also building a more professional customer service and account manager system, providing one-on-one communication channels. Any suggestions you have for OKX—including criticisms or areas where you think competitors are doing better—are welcome to be shared at any time. For actionable issues, we will also provide responses and improvements within clear timeframes through a more defined SLA mechanism; even regarding long-term principles and core operational logic, we will continue to listen and discuss better solutions together.

Lastly, I would like to talk about X Layer and OKB. From a compliance perspective, OKX operates with licenses only in mainstream countries and regions, subject to strict regulations with many institutional red lines that cannot be crossed. From a long-term business perspective, we also do not agree with a "kill the chicken to get the egg" model. Regarding MEME, we do not inherently reject it. MEME is fundamentally a community-type token, and if the community is healthy and transparent, we are also very open to collaboration. However, projects that are highly centralized, obviously unfair in design, and require the platform to "help create a hundredfold myth" are not something we will engage in.

But what is clear is that the development of X Layer and OKB will never stop. X Layer is one of OKX's core infrastructures. In the past, we did not invest enough in the Web3 direction, but since last year, we have elevated it from the periphery to a core position. X Layer is our long-term strategic foundation. While its TVL may currently be only a few billion dollars, our goal is 50 billion, even 100 billion. In the future, whether it is exchange users, payment users, or wallet users, there will be a large number of applications built on top of X Layer.

As an ecosystem token and gas token, OKB has a clear and long-term position. There is no question of OKX abandoning X Layer or OKB. As OKX itself and the entire crypto and blockchain industry grow and develop, I believe X Layer and OKB will both become a long-term and continuous core strategic part of OKX.

We will continue to invest in the ecosystem and infrastructure development without stagnation. Whether or not we go public in the future, technology and long-term value will always be our core.

This article is contributed and does not represent the views of BlockBeats.

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