What’s Next for Crypto Markets: The Exchange Perspective - TOKEN2049 Dubai 2025

Tonight, right now, or should I say, early this evening, we're talking about the heart of the digital asset industry–the exchanges. I'm joined by three senior executives from three of the world's largest exchanges to talk about what's happening now and what the future holds for centralized exchanges. So I'll let each of the panelists quickly introduce themselves, starting with Tracy. Hello, nice to meet you. Uh, I'm Tracy.

I work at Maxi. So I really want you to know what Maxi is. Therefore, our vision is to be our easiest path to cryptocurrency. So we've done a lot of work for this region. We want to provide more benefits to users benefits to users , for example, we offer zero commission on futures trading, er, futures trading pairs.

The first thing we have also prepared is very good liquidity, because we know, regardless of whether you are just starting to trade or you are an experienced trader, liquidity is also important for users. So the last thing we do is provide, I think most people know that Maxi–it's Maxi, it has a lot of learning tokens. We have over 4,000 learning tokens. 4000 tokens. Yes.

Yes. That's a lot. That's a lot of tokens. And we want to do more, actually. Okay, we took it together, uh, since we know there are millions of token assets on the chain.

So we also offer, uh, launched a new product that we called Dex Plus. So the user of this product can, let's talk about Dex Plus a little later. I want to talk about this Dex Plus a little later. Okay, no problem. Okay, BC, tell us a little about yourself.

You are a relatively new CEO CEO . Thank you. So, uh, good day everyone. So, BC, uh, I was appointed CEO by a bot. So I think the reason is probably very simple.

I used to be the general counsel of the exchange counsel of the exchange , and before that I was a practicing lawyer in the Republic of Singapore, and, uh, everyone knows that the industry is at a crossroads right now, where a lot of regulators have actually, uh, taken some, uh, you know, regulatory action against various exchanges. I think that's why I was appointed CEO right now, to lead the transformation of the platform into a more compliant or fully compliant exchange. Well, this really does seem like something that's happening in a rapidly evolving industry, and we should definitely talk about regulation on this panel. And Luke, this is our third time at various Token 2049 events where we talk about the future of exchanges, and Darabit owns the market. Yes, a certain part of it indeed.

Hmm, I guess we're a little different from my neighbors. We are quite institutional. So we really have 80% So we really have 80% market share in the options space, and options are 80% of the market share. Yes. Volume and open positions are increasing.

So, and this has remained stable for many years. So that's really quite impressive. But, um, traders are a little different. So where they have millions of traders, we have thousands. We typically have corporations, institutions around the world, ahem, and experienced retail traders.

So the balance is about 80/20. So, 80% of about 80/20. So, 80% of our business is institutional, and two- thirds is options. Many of those present don't know us present don't know us because they simply belong to a different audience. We have 20-25 tokens, and they have tokens, and they have thousands.

We are opposites in many aspects. For us, the business model For us, the business model is options on Bitcoin and Ether, as well as the ever- growing volume of tokens, which is often used as a hedge for the options space, but options are what we are known for. This means that the entire platform model is different, they need to focus on thousands of different coins. We need to focus on one coin and many related instruments. So many market many market makers send thousands of updates in one product, rather than thousands of different ones.

This has a lot of implications for infrastructure, a lot of product decisions that are completely different. We'll talk a lot about that today on this panel. As you have already seen, we have centralized exchanges centralized exchanges – this is a fairly large and reliable category. It's not just one or two things, because many of you in the audience probably think that there are centralized exchanges and decentralized exchanges. And Tracy, you talked a little bit about this DEX plus product.

Why should it exist? Because, I have to say, centralized exchanges have volume, speed. Why are you implementing this? There are several reasons. First, as I mentioned, we have 4,000 tokens in Maxi, but that's still not enough.

As we know, there are millions of them on the blockchain . Therefore, we want users to be able to trade more easily by evaluating this. Uh, as we know, if you want to trade the DAX, it's actually not that easy. You need to have a lot of technology, such as how to use a wallet, how to store your private key, how to transfer money on the blockchain, and how to trade. In fact, the cost for users is very high, and for centralized exchanges everything is simpler.

So, we want to combine one want to combine one , er, both, so that users can use a centralized exchange experience that is simpler and more convenient, and also trade many millions of assets on the blockchain. This is the first reason. Another one that we also find painful for users. A painful problem is poor liquidity on the blockchain and for indices. Yes, for the decks for the majority, and then for example if they were to use something like Unis Swap, is there a concern that on some of these tokens with less liquidity, you could crush the market with a very small order?

Yes, also the user will need to pay for the pass, this is also not so good for the trader. So for Maxi, we want to change that. Therefore, we designed the DEX Plus product to be user-friendly and have very good liquidity. So is it partly derived from your centralized exchange order book? Yes.

Yes. Yes. With a book of warrants. But another difference is that there is actually no wallet. You don't need to store your private key.

As we know, if you trade on Chain Web Three, you need to write it down on paper or perhaps on your private key. Yes. Maybe sometimes you keep it in your safe deposit box because you're afraid it will get lost, or maybe someone will find out. But for ordinary people, it is very difficult for us; Sometimes in everyday life we ​​also ask: " we ​​also ask: " Where is my mobile phone?" Where is my key?

Usually we always lose something. So I have a friend, he took advantage of trading on Chain, and ended up losing his wallet and all his money, and he had to go back to work. I'm your friend, you're like oh my God, I've done this once or twice. Yes, that's because if you use a wallet, you're just working like a war against a hacker, but you, um, work with an exchange, you actually need to find a trusted exchange. Yes.

So the hacker, um, team So the hacker, um, team , the whole exchange team, the IT security team will work for you, and also have a support team to back you up. So listen, that's a fair point, and let's talk a little bit about custodial BC. So, it's a complex operation, I can imagine, especially on your scale. And frankly , we've seen, even just this year, some pretty big hacks , if you can call it that, I don't even know if that's the right word, but very high-profile cases where a lot of value was lost from a centralized exchange, putting users' assets at risk . Um, how do you manage storage?

You have 40 million registered users, um, and you keep people's money safe. So, uh, as a flip of a coin, I'm sure that, uh, many friends sitting here may know that in 2020, we faced a very serious, uh, hacking incident. Yes, we actually lost about three billion. How many? Uh, I think it should be 300 million.

Yes, a very, very large amount very, very large amount . So, uh, this is a very, very, very big lesson for us to understand that building the backend is very important. It was after this time that we shifted all of our operational and marketing costs to building the backend. Do you think it was a wise investment? Definitely.

Currently , our team has over 1,000 employees worldwide. 90% of our employees are employees are engineers. Think about it. There are engineers who understand the soft elements, like, well, you know, food engineers, safety engineers. Yes, that's a lesson we learned.

We spent about five years building the infrastructure for a real- time data processing system. We are rebuilding the entire wallet system. We're, well, strengthening our security environment. We run an account reconciliation system to make sure that, well, we know the money is there. So we're really wasting a lot of resources, allocating so many resources, and I mean, Luke, is that enough?

Do you think, whether institutional players or average retail customers, I'm not even talking about just your exchange, but in general, is today's technology such that it allows people to feel safe providing their cryptocurrency to an exchange? It depends on who you ask, right? So, we have... I'm asking you. Yes.

Yes. But it depends on who I ask. So, here, here, I think So, here, here, I think , yes, from a retail perspective, it's safe for a lot of people who trust the platform, based on the history. Uh based on the history. Uh , people don't really get into all this complexity and maybe don't understand it properly, but on our side, these are institutions, so we have billions of dollars of assets, and these institutions are, let's say, asset managers, and asset managers learned from FTX, so they, um, may have huge fiduciary duties to themselves duties to themselves , yes, but after that, um, drama then, um, they changed their policy, so they will only distribute funds under certain circumstances.

So, from my perspective, that means ISO certification, SOCK 2 certification, things like that. And we're working with, I think, seven custodians at the moment. We've had copper for four or five years now, but now we have Fidelity, we have BitGo, we have Comminu, we have Zodia, we just announced Signum. So if you as an institution want to invest your $100 million in Fidelity, you can. If you are still one to trust BitGo or anyone else, you can.

So the question is not how we solve this. How do we solve this as an industry? Well, obviously through partnerships. Yes. Yes.

Many of them are managing partners of custodians. But it's a complex product to create, and of course there can often be trade-offs between them, such as into hot wallets. That's, uh, and as technology gets more and more complex, even with different types of coins, 4,000 coins on the same architecture. Many engineering hours must be spent even on creating the internal wallets that your exchange uses in Mexi. Do you mean a wallet?

Yes, the internal wallets that you use, not to mention the ones that your end customers use. Yes, for this I mentioned that we want to protect user access. So in this part I agree with BC, security is also a top priority for the exchange. I think, yes, for Maxi we use an internal wallet and we also work with Hacken. Is the blockchain, uh Hacken.

Is the blockchain, uh , an auditor? So, uh, after we work through this, uh, they can help us improve our process and, uh, security issues. So, uh, this actually really helps us protect user ratings. We're also looking at, also looking at, uh, can we have a wallet, maybe the user can use it with other, uh, decks or not? But at this point, as I mentioned, I think we need to secure this for the user first, and then maybe you can open it up later.

Well, you know that users can lose their money if you get hacked, but of course one of the problems is that their wallet—it's their own personal wallet on their phone, especially in the sense that it's not tied to custody, that's often an attack vector that a lot of people face, whether it's a phishing attack phishing attack , or some kind of social engineering, that's a concern, all three of you have, of course, large operations. And maybe it's just me, but I feel like you all have a responsibility in retail to help educate the masses. So I want to ask this, let's start with you. How does Kcoin educate people about how cryptocurrency works and how to protect their assets, regardless of whether they interact with your platform? You know, uh platform?

You know, uh , if you read the front page of our platform, there's a lot of educational material on there about how you're going to protect your own account. That's right. Or are you into retail training in general? That's right. Yes.

Yes. We're trying to educate them, and you know, uh, as a platform, I think the main responsibility of a platform is not to show, but to make sure that every investor can make money. Yes. Yes, profit is important. Good.

But I think what's more important is that every penny that users trust us with is transferred to our account. We have a certain legal obligation or moral obligation moral obligation to make sure that the money is there in a safe and secure manner. This is an undeniable duty. We need to make every effort to every effort to protect our assets in any way possible. You know, profit always comes second.

This is not the main thing. This is trust. Yes, trust. That's right. Luke, of course, you have a completely different audience.

A lot of your, uh, clients your, uh, clients are extremely experienced, uh, trading firms with elite professionals who, for example, came from Wall Street. Uh, to what extent do you interact with your...you say, 80 with your...you say, 80 % of your volume? Uh, how do you learn from your clients?

Yeah, for us it's maybe a little different, uh, again , because the numbers are manageable. So if you have a thousand customers you have a thousand customers , uh, large corporations, uh, institutions all over the world, you interact with them through sales, through customer support, uh, through dinners, through drinks here and there, in every way possible, but it's a personal interaction. So it's not a form, just a discussion of what you need? Uh, and try to get your message across. So, we have new products, new features, new security features, new security .

So security is a good example. So over the years, based on that feedback, we've changed things. We may add new wallet addresses, but you won't be able to use them immediately. We postpone use. We have any UB key, we have multi-signature.

So how can you, as a client, say, "I only want this team to come out after this team approves it." These are functions where the customer is not necessarily the account owner . The account owner may be a treasury team in another country, and the trader only has limited access. I mean, it's a pretty complex concept. You found out about it, maybe at dinner.

Yes. But, or here in the States, the idea is not to manage 40 million accounts. We could probably accounts. We could probably create it for you. So, if a client has a unique feature that is really important, we would consider building it.

Why not ? If it's a large client, it greatly complements any of our needs, of course we can customize it. So the model is not mass production, but the model is perhaps a purposeful, continuous iteration in a purposeful way. Because you have these 40 million customers that Luke was talking about. That's a lot of people you have to interact with.

You have customer service agents who are individuals. As I understand it, you are starting to really take advantage of artificial intelligence, which is what the previous panel was about. But to help you better communicate with your customers today and perhaps improve your product, tell us a little about that journey. So, you're talking about artificial intelligence and many other new products. I think this is a really difficult challenge for every exchange.

I just spoke to you in this small room, and you know, as a sponsor here, Okex, they have a very good wallet. Did you hear that? We just heard a compliment from the CEO of one exchange to another crypto exchange. You see, this is a collaboration in cryptocurrency. They have a very good product, they have a very good product, but why?

What happened a month ago? Right? Every time we launch a new product, we need to worry about the attitude of regulators, their opinion on a particular product particular product . I think every participant, every exchange right now is really concerned about how we're going to introduce our introduce our "three" web wallet to the EU market. Right?

But does anyone think about this at the very beginning, a year before ? No. Now we turn to artificial intelligence. Yes, we have a VI team. We have over 20 scientists actually working on this .

But when we talk to the regulator, he is usually not very surprised. They just tell you, yeah, once you launch this product, you need to tell me first before you even start developing it. Until. It's like now Until. It's like now , where you need to tell me first, because you know, for know, for any new product that has the potential to pave the way for future trading, which inevitably involves some kind of risk, whether the regulator wants to take the risk is a problem.

Then, well, we're here in the UAE, and I think we've talked about regulation many times at this stage and others here at the conference, and the UAE has been as progressive and thoughtful as thoughtful as any jurisdiction in the world. I'm sure you'll agree . Um, where innovation is what they really care about, and that's extremely important to them , while also ensuring investor protection. In Mexi, you know, you talked about over 4,000 coins. We talked about DEX Plus and other new products.

Do you know if regulation is limiting the pace of innovation for you? Uh, actually I want to add something about artificial intelligence and education. Of course. Yes. So for us, uh, for Maxi, we're always looking for good product and also talent, Web3 talent.

So for this part, we have, uh, a $ 30 million fund for the Alexa campaign to support, uh, new star startups, for example, through, uh, scholarships with the university, a hacon and, uh, some mentoring. So we proposed a lot of things to find more talent from the industry. Yes. Also, uh industry. Yes.

Also, uh , like, uh, on the Maxi team, actually, we have a lot of engineers as well, but we're also looking for talented engineers to join us and support the industry, and it's, I think, an ongoing journey for you, yeah, because you always have to look for new talent, new IT graduates every year, and if there are people who come out of nowhere, uh, actually I want to ask where, and I think some of this audience members are looking for jobs. Where do you source talent from? Do you often reach out to technology companies to try to take something from them? Are these people from Tradfi, or is this some kind of cross-pollination and you're hiring from other cryptocurrency firms? How does it work?

Depends on the role. So, we have a large office in Amsterdam that specializes in technology. We have the technology in Poland the technology in Poland . Hmm, we have . Hmm, we have our platform headquarters here in Dubai, and we have a team in Panama.

So, different roles, different, uh, needs. We work a lot with recruiters. So, it's not in Dubai, where everything is growing rapidly, but, uh growing rapidly, but, uh , the talent pool when we came, uh, wasn't really formed yet, because, uh, the exchanges were just being created, and in terms of trade, there weren't many of them yet. So the vir framework, meaning we are regulated by viral, was also new, so there was not much experience. But it is gradually growing.

As for Amsterdam, it's pretty well developed, so there are a lot of trading firms in Amsterdam, all the traditional trading firms, uh, that deal in options and futures. So, Optim, IMC, Flow are all trading these big firms that have been trading on many exchanges for years and are based in Amsterdam. So it's an easier talent pool for us because they have experience. Hmm, it's really different, but it is , and again, in terms of security, it becomes quite problematic quite problematic . For example, if you use LinkedIn, we recently had 65 people pitching or recruiting on our behalf that we don't know.

65...You go to LinkedIn, they won't interfere. So they won't change anything. So if you say you work there, but there's nothing I can do... Oh, I see.

So these people are self- certifying that they... Yes, but you don't own your company brand on LinkedIn. So you can't force these people... It looks like we need a free web free web version of this. Yes, but it's really scary because these people are recruiting on your behalf.

They ask them to fly anywhere to bring their work laptop. So work laptop. So , obviously, Lazarus and such organizations are really bad. Therefore, it is very difficult to conduct recruitment on your own conduct recruitment on your own , because you will be bombarded with, um, a lot of fake vacancies. I heard from another major exchange that they believe they get more than one, um, multiple, um, applications for Lazarus every day.

So we all struggle with this. That's right... Do you see the same thing? Do you see these fake job applications, for example, or fake job openings that are being used that are being used to try to lure your talent, and those are attack vectors. Actually, similar situations...

yeah, uh, I see your point. I think it's happening everywhere, so it's happening everywhere, it's quite problematic because it's, first of all, expensive, you need more people to defend against it, um, but it also makes it harder to hire. What do you think will be the next big step for centralized exchanges centralized exchanges ...? What trend do you think will gain momentum, perhaps in the second half of 2025, although we haven't seen it as strongly as above yet? Uh, so from my perspective, as I said, the industry right now, especially for digital asset exchanges, I think we're at a crossroads right now where every player has to make a choice: either become a fully compliant exchange that can be accepted by most jurisdictions, which means you have to become a local, compliant exchange, but not an offshore exchange.

This is complicated because there are many different jurisdictions and they have very different rules. This is indeed a real challenge, but we must accept it. This is a trend where most regulators, EU regulators, mainland China regulators, US regulators, they are reaching out to you, right? I am the one who actually represents the company represents the company to reach a settlement agreement with the Ministry of Her Majesty the United States. When I stand on the court, I understand that, you know, when you talk about innovation, yeah, this is a very good team.

That's a very good term, isn't it? A very exciting term. But the innovations themselves are something incredible. This is a quick way to pave the way for the future, perhaps trading for future technologies future technologies . But innovation is not a shirt.

This is not protection. This is not an excuse to essentially help you avoid legal liability. This is a real challenge. We just talked about DAX, right? The difference between DAX and sex.

Let me take a look. Good. Sex is good because it's sex. Yes. You have an owner right here, from British Columbia British Columbia .

Sex is good. Yes. You have a UBO ( Yes. You have a UBO ( beneficial owner). You have a management team.

Regulators may find you to take certain regulatory actions against you. Right? Then what about sex? Sex doesn't follow rules. Do not follow KYC rules.

Is this possible? Certainly not. Sex—this is DAX—is not a way to avoid strict liability, which means you don't have to go through KYC. Impossible. Think about it.

I, I, I, I'm telling you this . I am fully convinced that KCoin is convinced that KCoin is all about regulatory compliance, as difficult as it is. But you also have 40 million customers to serve, and compliance is probably the most important thing. Yes. But you have many customers who are looking for a great product every day.

Hmm, and how many employees do you have now? You said over a thousand. Yes, over a thousand. Over a thousand employees. Hmm, many of them are many of them are engineers.

How do you motivate your engineers to create the best products in the world? Good. So, in general, we divide products into two different groups. Good. First, it's infrastructure, which means other exchanges have it and we need it.

Can you give me an example that is very simple, for example, you are talking about an order matching mechanism, that is, a system for accurate order matching, a risk control system? I mean not only the front-end system where users can see it, but also the back-end system, the real-time data processing system, the risk control and internal control system, from the registration system to the back-end system. All you need is infrastructure and that's one half or less, you definitely have to have it, otherwise you don't need to run a business, it's like zero, your business starts from zero, zero multiplied by three, still zero, right? So another category of products category of products is products that can pave the way for future commerce, because right now we have a panel discussion on AI-powered commerce . This is a very good product that everyone needs to think about.

How can we use artificial intelligence technologies to reform our customer service system or, for example, our content generation system, every system, right? This is a product that paves the way. We always encourage our engineers to create ideas or products like this type of product, you know type of product, you know , for the first category of products, it's just a commitment. You have to do it. But the second category But the second category is a product that you have to fight for, and with a lot of creativity, it seems like you can create such innovative products, especially given the great competition, and you know competition, and you know , we were talking backstage , and you mentioned that in five years, commerce will look very different than it does today.

Yes. What do you think, Tracy? What could be different in five years than today? Uh, I think the two of them were talking about innovation and products for Maxi, we looked at it from a different angle. Uh, as for the future, I think technology changes, and volume, you know, price can fluctuate, but it never changes, it's people, everything is created by people on the team.

So we want to focus more on culture. In fact, we want to empower the team . Uh, maybe sometimes they make some mistakes, but we need to encourage them. I know that everyone has something good everyone has something good , and maybe it's not something bad, so we want people to be able to do what they can do better. So the first thing, uh, we import our employees.

Another thing, in fact, is that we also work externally, for example, with those we work with. There are many ecosystems such as Aptos, Ethena, Mento. So this is also important for the future. Everything changes, but I think collaboration is changing now. You collaborate with innovative firms like Aptos and Mantle, which you mentioned.

I mean these first or second levels of the ecosystem. Yes. I work with the first tier, the top and top ecosystems, but we also have £30 million . We also, uh, this is for a talent search campaign, but the host has another $300 million to support new, uh, new projects. Maybe they're just in the early stages and we've found that they maybe have potential, uh, maybe in artificial intelligence, maybe in DP of something, so we're also supporting small projects.

Maybe they will be the future. So, I think the key thing in the next five years will be how to make their product easier for the user and how to collaborate with internal or external partners and expand their capabilities. You know, Luke, we've seen some pretty radical changes in the United States this year. And of course, we had Eric Trump here today, whose father implemented many of these changes in the United States. And it seems, at least that's what I gathered from this conference, that many jurisdictions around the world will either follow suit or at least closely follow what's happening in the US happening in the US .

And that has led some people, some experts, to say that in the second half of 2025, we could see some historic highs. I'm not asking you to make any predictions about the price of Bitcoin, but I want to ask how you are preparing for what could be a new bullish rally? We are always preparing. So were the people in the room always getting ready? Yes.

No, it's actually true. Uh, because we have products that pave the way for us to profit from bullish trends, right? So, options right? So, options are the simplest, most capital-efficient option, but in terms of future implementation, and that's essentially what a bullish trend means: more users, more trades, we look at the performance of the platform and the services offered. So the platform is always getting faster, the bandwidth is going to be higher, new market makers are joining, which means that if you're trading the options you need, if you have five more market you have five more market makers, they're going to be trading, let's say, $5,000 more per second .

So, in terms of the power of the platform, over the years we've seen that, and if what you're, uh, predicting happens, uh, that means a lot more. So, from the perspective of, say, developers, how do you, uh developers, how do you, uh , incentivize them to create cool things? If the people who work for us are aiming to process many times more data than we do today, for a platform that currently has millisecond latency to be microsecond, then it needs to be faster it needs to be faster . We launched multicast, which is the fastest data stream; no one else has done this. We are launching the following functions.

We launched a block RFQ, so if you want to trade a thousand contracts, it's complicated on the books; you receive large volumes that directly address counterparties. We launch brokerage solutions where brokers, such as institutional brokers institutional brokers , can properly manage trades and distribute them across one or many counterparties simultaneously. These features will be closely related to your predictions. More users, especially traditional users, banks and brokers, asset managers, hedge funds asset managers, hedge funds , they demand all of this. So, if they already appear in 2025, we will have to hurry.

What I wanted to say is that I think all your engineers need to work overtime because we're going to need even more capacity, even more speed, even better customer support, and even more education. Well, thank you very much, friends. This was an extraordinary panel discussion. It was great discussing exchanges with all of you. And thanks again to Dubai for Token 2049.