Interview with Erald Ghoos, CEO Europe at OKX | EBC11

Hi everyone. This is European Blockchain Convention number 11. We are here in Barcelona this morning uh with Errol Bus. Good morning. CEO of the OKX Europe.

Yeah, great being here in Barcelona for the European Blockchain Convention.

Thank you so much for joining us.

Thank you for having me. It's always great being here.

Yeah, Barcelona is one of my favorite cities in Europe.

Oh, 100%. It's the hospitality, you know, the food,

the architecture. It's great place to be.

Yeah. So, listen, OKX has been a household brand in crypto. I mean, everyone knows that it becomes so popular. It's much more real than exchange. The popularity of the wallet is insane.

Um, how do you see the position of OKX, you know, in in uh bringing in the next 100 million users to crypto for a history?

Absolutely. So, indeed, we are already in on a global level. OKX we're always like somewhere uh number one two three or four right depend on how you measure the size of a company like ours you can do that based on the number of users the assets under management the geographical coverage the number of employees you know the number of financial licenses which is now a hot topic you know these days yeah

so always we're like number one number two or number three in the on a global level um we have been in the space already since 12 or 13 years which is like a very long time back then under different brands but you know we have devolved over the over the time into OKX and the global household name that we are now. Um 3 to four years ago there was a fundamental change in this whole crypto industry. Before it was more of a wild wild west kind of unregulated environment. The only limitation to product and innovation was our our minds right. Regulators had to step in.

they had to build safeguards uh for keeping users and and and and and and companies safe from from any wrongdoings. Uh so then bringing it closer to to Europe, we then also started to apply for uh the the famous Micah license which we are now having already since earlier this year. Um and ever since then we are now growing and scaling our business throughout all Europe. Um so in that sense to answer your question how we are going to get to the next 100 million of users is trust. Now by having this regulatory stamp of approval and being recognized as a reputable financial industry player that also allows for more people who were before a little bit hesitant about this asset class and about crypto in general and about exchanges to give them more comfort about these companies who have this mic license.

They're regulated. they're applying with all the rules that are laid out by our home regulators. So I think this is the first step of us and you know the industry gaining more users allowing for more adoption to happen. Trust is one thing. The other thing is less friction being perceived as a local player as a local competitor.

So how do we do that is by having this Micah license we as a global exchange can now talk to local banks can now talk to local payment providers. We can talk to local EID solutions. We can talk to data brokers that can all help with providing less friction when customers want to on board on our platform. Right? They don't have to provide their proof of address anymore because we can with the consent of the users reach out to some data brokers.

We can read data and identity information from their electronic ID. That all helps with allowing users with less friction and more trust to be on boarded on our platform. Now also we are implementing right now in Europe all the different local popular payment methods in Europe all the local eid solutions recently now specific for Spain where we are now in uh in in Barcelona. We recently implemented clave which is like the popular local eid solution. This also demonstrate that we're really focused on giving users in Europe the the the local feel the local experience to our products.

So I think that is one step that will help with onboarding the next 100 million. Then also decentralization defy a lot of people you know they are uh they want to keep control over their own assets. They want to be their own custody. They want to be their own bank. Now with the new technology on DeFi being much more accessible because if you look into like a year two years ago DeFi was a little bit of a a clunky instrument right now with OKX with our D5 wallet which is world class uh it allows much more accessibility user friendliness and security and self-control over your assets and we do believe that on a global level defy will be more uh driving the future and will probably also help with onboarding not next 100 million but I do believe the next 1 billion you know users on on DeFi

in in what period of time like do you think these numbers will come together?

That is difficult to assess. Now I think also if we look into uh some numbers that were published I think it was yesterday or the day before there was this graph where they now see that uh the first on a global level 4.7 or 4.8% of the global population is now a crypto holder. If we now take that back to the the the adoption of internet which was like 20 30 years ago from that moment once you reach this critical four 5% then you go into the hockey stick growth

exponential grow

correct that's like the you know the hockey stick growth that things go like parabolic I think we're now going to enter into this space regulation is much more welcoming we see also across the Atlantic the administration in the US being much more open now to crypto there's going to be like a more of a competitive race between the US, Europe, Asia in terms of who is going to be the leader in crypto. I hope that in Europe we're not going to lag behind on what is happening in the US and in Asia now. So I do believe that first that that next 1 billion adoption. I think it's going to be rather soon,

right? Um that's also bring me to my next question because 2025 was slightly volatile and you're seeing a very bright future ahead of us. uh do you think 2026 will be the year where these things come together? Are we looking at a little bit more of like a longer uh period?

So now if we look into the markets right like not this weekend but like the the previous uh uh weekends there was a little bit of some uproar in the markets uh when there was like a a small small crash and uh some some things that happened uh in the industry. Um I also do believe now that um the industry is coming stronger out of this. There is some lessons uh that we are learning or that the industry uh is learning. Um I think also it will resonate a little bit more with the public. Now when it comes to that level of adoption I do believe also that particularly for Europe Mica is very instrumental.

Um what we personally from OKX point of view is we have also now obtained a method license right because under MIA what we can do is allowing for buy sell hold of crypto assets. We also see the demand from a lot of users outside who want to more go into a leverage type of product structured products you know for more advanced users for more advanced traders. So for that we now have also obtained a method license that also allows us to offer a much wider uh uh product scope and product offering. So in that sense I do believe you know there is much more innovation now coming as well. Um much more product offering.

Um so in that sense I do think we're we're very uh well positioned uh in Europe.

100%. Again a household name that's probably going to carry its weight uh uh through the next couple of years. Thank you so much for joining us today. Anything else you would like to add or tell our viewers?

No, really great and grateful to be here. It's a very strong brand name that you have established over the years, the European Blockchain Convention. Proud to be a sponsor of this and uh looking forward next year to uh be again a sponsor of this amazing event.

Thank you so much for joining us. It was a pleasure.

Thank you for having me.