Conversation with BitMEX CEO Stephan Lutz: No hacker attacks in ten years, we have never taken shortcuts in security

Interview: Mensh, ChainCatcher

Guest: Stephan Lutz, BitMEX CEO

Organized by: Mensh, ChainCatcher

As the oldest cryptocurrency derivatives exchange in the industry, BitMEX was co-founded in 2014 by Arthur Hayes, Ben Delo and Sam Reed. BitMEX has always regarded security and high performance as the main line of its development. On the one hand, BitMEX has never had a capital security incident in the past ten years and has maintained an industry record. BitMEX, on the other hand, is described as a “peer-to-peer trading platform offering leveraged Bitcoin contracts.” It allows users to effectively bet on the future price of Bitcoin with up to 100x leverage, making it a handy tool for professional investors.

On the occasion of BitMEX's tenth anniversary, ChainCatcher invited BitMEX CEO Stephan Lutz to discuss the changes, crises and achievements in the development process of BitMEX, as well as the future development vision of BitMEX.

Derivatives trading platform for professional investors

ChainCatcher: Can you briefly introduce the main business of BitMEX and what role it plays in the cryptocurrency field?

Stephan: BitMEX is one of the first cryptocurrency exchanges. We have been in this field for 10 years, and established European banks like Rothschild are one of the earliest and largest banks. The same goes for BitMEX. We focus on core derivative products. If you are already in the cryptocurrency space and want to increase trading volume, improve capital efficiency, and trade regularly, then you need to come to BitMEX. We offer perpetual swaps, forward futures options, pre-launch futures and market forecast products. This is our core market.

We provide an institutional grade platform. We have a high-performance trading platform and provide our traders with the highest level of customer support and technical support. Our front-end is something you only see at high-frequency trading firms (HFT) or the larger trading firms around the world. We offer these services to individual users , which is sometimes difficult if you're new because you get overwhelmed. But if you've been in this field for years, this is what you need. For example, we offer up to 250x leverage, customizable trading UI tools, and a collateral-backed program (also known as a margin plus program). We have the largest insurance fund in the entire centralized exchange space. This is true when compared to absolute value, when compared to open interest, and when compared to real cryptocurrency holdings. We can talk about proofs of reserves and proofs of liabilities later. They're basically all in Bitcoin, which is not just for bookkeeping, but usable. Our low latency, high liquidity, especially Bitcoin margin products.

We offer this service to real Bitcoin players. We also offer trading robots to automate trading actions. We want to provide the best support for professional derivatives traders, at least semi-professional derivatives traders. This means they trade regularly and use the platform every day. For example, if my mom and dad wanted to get into cryptocurrency, they probably wouldn't choose BitMEX. But if I have friends who are already traders, they might join BitMEX.

Another aspect is that we provide strong security and transparency. Safety is a concern across the industry, and even more so in the past few years. But transparency is relatively unique to centralized exchanges, and is usually only available in decentralized exchanges. As a centralized exchange that embraces decentralization, we provide as much transparency as possible. We are also the inventors of several notable industry products and initiatives – perpetual swaps, funding mechanisms – and the cold wallet solutions we invented have been extremely safe and secure for the past decade.

We also invented mechanisms around insurance funds. We were flattered that everyone was essentially copying the open source technology we brought to the market. That means we're doing something right. We're excited that the industry is working toward this, even with competitors that are much larger than us.

For example, our proof of reserve and proof of liability mechanisms are leading in the industry. This is how we achieve neutrality, transparency, accessibility and security. We do not act as market makers independently, nor do we bet against our customers. Some of our clients or traders don't like this because they have less certainty in their trades. But professionals like it because they know the price discovery mechanism is fair. For us, transparency is proof of reserves, proof of liabilities, and being very transparent about what's happening on the platform. All of our mechanisms, all of our market microstructures are open to the public. You can see it all on our website. All of our technical documentation is open to anyone. What you see with us is what you get. We provide accessibility, which means we are here instead of hiding away somewhere.

You can contact our customer support staff directly. Like this interview, our executives are always available, and we regularly participate in panels, events, and more. We have been very focused on safety, which can be a double-edged sword - do it too well and only lose money. So we don't like to overhype safety. But so far, we have been safe and secure, and we will continue to work hard to maintain that advantage. We are a true peer-to-peer exchange, not a "bookmaker" where everyone is betting. That's why we only charge transaction fees as a source of revenue.

ChainCatcher: What are BitMEX’s most popular products?

Stephan: Our Bitcoin margin contract . We provide an exchange for people who own Bitcoin and want to trade it - people who would rather use their Bitcoin as collateral than stablecoins. The liquidity of our Bitcoin margin contracts is much higher than most other exchanges.

There are also perpetual swaps or futures contracts. For example, Bitcoin, Ethereum, Solana and Doge derivatives are the most liquid products on our platform. This is our main advantage. Everyone who wants to trade these types of derivatives will eventually come to BitMEX.

ChainCatcher: How is this done?

Stephan: First, we are the first company to launch this product, and it is a sticky product. Second, as I mentioned earlier, we are a very neutral platform. If you want to trade on a neutral exchange with uninterrupted pricing, come to BitMEX. This is not a criticism of other platforms, they just run different businesses here. Therefore, professional traders come to us. Finally, since we have the first two, they are Bitcoin Margins

Contracts provide basic liquidity. The liquidity of these products is the highest on the market.

Other platforms are playing a different game here. They have their expertise in other areas, but this is our expertise. Because we are the first, we are the original. We focus on professional traders, which is a subset of the overall market, or traders who wish to trade on a regular basis. So instead of doing just one transaction, they penetrate regularly. They like neutrality, transparency, reliability and security. The derivatives space is a repetitive game. If you only play it once, you won't care. If you engage in it multiple times over a longer period of time, you'll care a lot.

ChainCatcher: I also noticed that the slogan of the BitMEX official website is "get in the pit". What is the core idea conveyed by this sentence, and what values ​​do you think BitMEX advocates in this market?

Stephan: We launched this slogan last year, when we were still in a bear market or a sideways market. BitMEX is a place where people come together and it is a very competitive space. If you look at the previous news, if you also search the history of cryptocurrencies (like Twitter, etc.), you will see that this is a fierce competition. This is the core of what we do now.

At the same time, safety, security, transparency, abundant liquidity and professional traders are also our core values. This is not something that can be achieved overnight, but is a core value that we have always adhered to -that is, risk taking and profit creation. So, if you start trading derivatives, do it professionally. This is like if you want to learn martial arts---such as boxing, Muay Thai, etc. It's always about risk-taking and the development of practical capabilities. The same is true in trading, where you need to take risks and create profits. So, mindset-wise, it was a perfect fit. You need to get into the pit. If you don't "get in", that is, don't trade, you can't grow.

Therefore, you have to work hard to improve and then create profits. If you engage in legitimate martial arts, it is always transparent and competitive. It’s not just about winning, it’s not just about getting into a pit, fighting, and trying to win. You have to win legally or your competitors won't accept you. The same is true for how we view transactions. Over time, this also highlights the importance of transparency - there need to be clear rules so that everyone competes under the same rules, and there are no hidden issues where some people enjoy better trading conditions.

Basically everyone is equal, which is also an aspect of transparency. And then there's the celebration of the game, you win, you lose, you draw, but obviously it's not something in between. Not that you lose, but actually you win. If you lose, you lose, if you win, you win, and keep trying. This is the fundamental reason why we say "falling into the pit", because for us, the feeling of "falling into the pit" is the same.

ChainCatcher: From an internal control perspective, how does BitMEX recruit new talents, and how does this process reflect BitMEX’s values?

Stephan: It depends on where you are. If you work in sales, marketing, business development, etc., you will face competition to a large extent. Risks are often taken. Instead of generating profits internally, you build your brand internally. So the competition is very fierce. Make sure you understand market dynamics. Therefore, we are looking for people with the right attitude and the ability to improve their abilities over time. So we typically recruit and hire people who have great potential, and then we want to see them actually achieve that, with not only their potential being enhanced but their capabilities also being enhanced.

The potential is that you can do it, you can choose to do it, but you need to want to do it. Therefore, they need to be motivated. If they have both, they will grow in the organization. If you choose a technology role, if you choose a compliance role, if you choose a corporate center role, it's more about the transparency aspect. We work hard to ensure that internally as well as our traders need to do this. If it works, we celebrate. If it doesn’t work out, we speak up. We would confront people internally and say, hey, this is not the way we want to work. Frankly, that doesn't mean they're going to be eliminated the next day. We need openness and transparency about what works and what doesn’t.

Even for me, they'll come to me and say, Stephan, what did you do there or what did you say there, that's not right. I just said, okay, I'm sorry, we'll do better next time. This is true in sports, in competitive sports, and in martial arts. In martial arts, you see or feel that if something goes wrong, you immediately feel pain because you get punched. You can improve by being beaten. We just believe that we need these hits and also to become better people in the organization.

ChainCatcher: Nowadays, BitMEX’s user base is basically professional traders. What changes have occurred in the user base in the past ten years?

Stephan: It's evolving. We have always wanted to attract those who have a certain competitiveness in trading and desire a professional trading experience. That doesn't mean you do it in the first place. It's a bit like learning martial arts. When you first enter the gym, training hall or dojo, you are not really a fighter, you are just starting out. But if you have coaching, the right atmosphere and the necessary infrastructure, just like martial arts, it doesn't require a lot of infrastructure but you have everything you need and you will develop as a fighter.

The same goes for BitMEX. We welcome basically everyone, but we'll be transparent with them about what that means. This means that if you "enter the trade," you are likely to take some damage. But if you still want to stay, we are willing to help you.

We do provide educational resources, and we publish macro research reports at least once a month, such as the Arthur Hayes Crypto Traders Digest. As well as the BitMEX Alpha Weekly Report, we will tell you through this article that this should be the transaction of the week. If you think this will be the case next week, this is how you should set up your trading strategy. We teach everyone chart trading analysis and chart pattern knowledge. This is a way to help people become professional traders.

So we welcome anyone to BitMEX, as long as you have the mentality and motivation to become a more professional trader, we and the community will provide you with help and support.

Going back to BitMEX's original positioning, 10 years ago it was an exchange for individual traders. At that time, there were no institutional-level cryptocurrency participants. But as we develop and impart professional trading concepts while introducing tools and transparency from the traditional financial world, we have also attracted more and more institutional investors.

Today we see that at the peak, individual traders accounted for 20% and institutional traders accounted for 80% . Now, the proportion of individual traders is slightly higher because they come into the market and want to trade.

In short, we have been working hard to maintain the professional trading features of BitMEX. As a centralized exchange, we are also committed to decentralization, spreading the concept of cryptocurrency as much as possible, and allowing traders to take responsibility and control their own financial performance. We don't give traders orders, but we help them understand why they do what they do and become better traders. At the same time, we have always adhered to the core values ​​of security and transparency.

Furthermore, our MPC systems are unparalleled. We have a strict internal security framework, proof of reserves, proof of liabilities. We have our own legal and compliance framework. This often leads to the question – why do we do this? Frankly, we would do it whether there was a regulatory requirement or not. Why? Because I want to ensure that traders on this platform act with integrity. This is necessary to have a healthy market.

Finally, our customized interfaces, trading robots, margin plus guarantee support plans, and insurance funds for professional traders enable even individual small traders to trade with large institutions. In traditional finance, you couldn't do that because you would be overwhelmed.

I come from traditional finance. If you want to trade derivatives on the CME or even the Hong Kong exchange, it's not possible because I can't compete with the institutions because I can't speed it up. In the cryptocurrency space, especially at BitMEX, we make sure that there is at least a level playing field so that you are not getting hurt all the time, let's just say it's an equal opportunity competition. Of course, larger companies have more capital and they can afford to lose more, but it's a level playing field in terms of how they trade, the information they get, the speed of execution, etc.

How to achieve zero hacker attacks in ten years?

ChainCatcher: BitMEX has never had a hack or theft incident, which is truly a remarkable achievement. How do you guard against the risk of hacking and secure user access, especially in the early days?

Stephan: We actually face quite a lot of risk, not that no one has ever tried to do this - there have been attempts to do this. But what we're good at, and that's built on the founding ethos, is dealing with those risks and making sure that we anticipate that. In the early days, our founders didn’t actually want to become one of the largest cryptocurrency derivatives exchanges.

When they founded BitMEX, after the Mt. Gox incident, customer assets were misappropriated, and then security issues arose, everything was amplified. Our founders want to prevent this from happening again. They want to create a platform for themselves where they can say, if I were a customer, I should be confident that, at least to a greater extent, this potential scenario wouldn't happen. That’s how they build their platform. Even though we've improved our technology and revolutionized everything, this philosophy remains ingrained in the way we operate.

But what does this mean? The first is to create a secure wallet system. From the beginning, we have used a multi-signature wallet, a proprietary multi-signature wallet, not just MPC (multi-compute), but multi-signature. We always have more than two signatures. This can be cumbersome operationally, as you need to make sure every party is coordinated. However, when you use multiple signatures (especially more than two), your security increases exponentially, but it's difficult because you need to accomplish more than just a technical hacker to penetrate us; Penetrate globally. This is something we are proud of and still are. This means that most of the funds associated with BitMEX are sitting in cold storage. Only a very small portion of our assets are held in hot wallets, allowing for real-time or near-real-time withdrawals and deposits. As for other things, they are now in cold storage and cannot be accessed. We don't have any single-player risks. We eliminate dependence on a specific group of people, both protecting operators and reducing the risk of hacker attacks.

The second point to note is platform security. We do not reuse client funds. All funds on the platform are 100% guaranteed. They will not be loaned to other customers. Unless the user loses their own transaction, these Bitcoins will be 100% stored in BitMEX's cold storage and completely stopped from use. Our platform also has an audit mechanism to ensure that the cryptocurrencies on BitMEX are always kept constant. Otherwise, the platform will stop functioning. This is hardcoded. This is what the founders want to ensure. This is completely different from how all other exchanges around the world operate.

Of course, this comes at a cost. This means that if you deposit your tokens, it must be disclosed here, and if you deposit your tokens, you cannot earn additional interest because we store it and retain it, which we call in the traditional banking world. It's called "100% Reserve". We can disburse all client funds at any time. Operationally this is not possible because you need to go through some blocks and you need to have signatures. But technically we can do it every minute.

ChainCatcher: Will adopting such a complex approach to ensure security affect BitMEX’s early development, such as user growth?

Stephan: The operation and auditing mechanism of the wallet are something that users cannot feel or see. We are aware of this and use it as a security method to provide security for our users. But this will not affect the trading experience. We can make withdrawals and deposits in near real time. It's all there. As with any other platform, the user experience in the early days was different than it is today. That's what we're going to do. Of course, you mentioned that a little bit. The thing is, we want to ensure the integrity of the platform because we host legitimate traders and want to make sure this is a true peer-to-peer platform. Therefore, we don 't like to take shortcuts , and this risk has been highlighted by down market movements such as Terra Luna or FTX. This is when you can tell if you're doing a good job, and you can make up for it in two ways. Either you're doing great and you're still safe, or you need to compensate with your own funds. This is not possible for us because the way we design it is correct. Some of our competitors have enough of their own capital that they're compensated for their hardship, which is great. We just need to be transparent about who does what.

This does come at a cost, especially in the speed at which new ideas can be rolled out. We tend to think, experiment, and test a plan many times before we implement it, and sometimes we find ourselves going off in certain directions that we then need to redo because we want to maintain a solid structure. We call it risk management. Safe, reliable, transparent and neutral. If we offer a product or service it needs to go through this system and we will only implement it if it can be done this way. This is the first one.

As a result, we often take longer to launch products than some of our competitors. Not all competitors, but some. But from our perspective, you definitely get something -- it just doesn't show up in a bull market. No one realizes this. But we’ve had three and a half crypto winters so far, and we hope to be here for the next one as well.

Secondly, there are certain elements of user experience, and in terms of user experience, our performance is relatively better than some competitors. Because we're very transparent, we want to make sure everyone knows what's going on. There are some areas where we are still ahead, like charts, trading, notification data, etc., and most importantly how margin is calculated, which is what we call account health. In the eyes of some traders, this is a little more complicated than those exchanges that are really retail-focused, because they will say, we just don't share the data, we take the risk. No one needs to know. We say no, you need to know because we are just providing a service to you.

To us, BitMEX is not a functional exchange for daily necessities. Instead, we are more like a race car . Racing cars are not suitable for driving in cities. Using them requires certain professional knowledge. Likewise, BitMEX is not an ordinary cryptocurrency exchange. Sometimes people confuse BitMEX with other exchanges and wonder why the functions and experience of BitMEX are not like other exchanges. This is because we are not all the same. Yes, you can use a car to do similar things, such as driving to commute. But racing cars are more suitable for use in special scenarios, such as competitions.

The same is true for BitMEX, we focus on providing special trading environments and tools for professional traders. We are not an ordinary cryptocurrency trading platform for the general public.

This is BitMEX’s positioning. We are a "racing car" product designed for users with professional trading knowledge and needs, not a "commuter car". This is what sets us apart from other exchanges.

ChainCatcher: Over the past decade, the cryptocurrency industry has faced several crises, including the Mt. Gox incident and the collapse of FTX and Terra Luna. So, how has BitMEX remained profitable during the crypto winter, especially in 2022?

Stephan: Number one, we have enough capital buffer so we don't go into unprofitable territory. We make money from transaction fees, not from market maker transactions. Most players, especially smaller exchanges, have been hit because, in addition to their exchange operations, they have side businesses such as payments, market making, or proprietary trading. These add-on businesses have been hit hard. Businesses that offer real trading just need to make some adjustments, hedging, taking the right positions - this has also been affected hugely, but it is relatively stable.

The second point (which we also talked about), for me, is to always do what we are good at and not take shortcuts. This is what we believe. Previous cryptocurrency winters have been difficult for our company and others. But I'm proud of our team because we survived, especially the crypto winter of 2023, overhauling our internal infrastructure.

Our system is completely different than it will be in 2021 or 2022, and it came online late last year and early this year at the perfect time. Although few people noticed this, it was the greatest compliment because we did it quietly, like changing an engine while driving, without anyone noticing. I'm very proud of the team's performance.

ChainCatcher: Why not do those side hustles, especially market making? Is it due to legal considerations?

Stephan: Not really. Some will criticize this, but it is a side effect of the clear focus and values ​​of our business. We know what we are doing. We hope to provide such a service. We want to be the only place you want to trade professionally. We know that people who don't value this won't come to us in a bull market. We know this, but we believe this is our positioning.

As much as I love Latin dance and standard dance, I might try some popular dance styles, such as so-called "American Lyrical". But I would never practice hip-hop.

If I were just looking at "what's cool in the market" or "where can I make money fast", I might be inclined to do those. The result is a mediocre street dancer who keeps adding new skills but never truly masters any one. Therefore, we would rather sacrifice that we are sometimes not the most profitable people in the market and do our job well, but we want to develop here for the long term. That's basically it. This is a clear decision by the board and management.

Ultimately, the market will vote for us. We provide strong service and rely on it. Enough people are saying, we understand, we value. So we use your platform and not others. Not to be dogmatic, just that we think our positioning is the best positioning, and other platforms are better positioned to do big things, change things up occasionally, and adapt quickly to new trends.

ChainCatcher: BitMEX founder faces legal action in 2021. How did these events affect BitMEX in the following years?

Stephan: First of all, it re-emphasizes our clear focus - only then can they go through these legal challenges with their heads held high and with integrity. Because of this pressure, a lot of our business has been accelerated. We have begun customer verification efforts ahead of the 2021 legal proceedings. In 2020, we implemented a best-in-class user verification program that verified our U.S. person or subject definition twice by independent auditors. We continue to strengthen our existing KYC systems and controls. We now have a sophisticated anti-money laundering and compliance program that has been independently audited against the anti-money laundering regimes of other major financial centers and complex jurisdictions around the world. Not to mention we also have top-notch security and compliance systems. Not a single coin has been lost since 2014, marking us as the exchange for the longest period without a client's funds being lost. Overall, our company's growth has accelerated.

On the other hand, we were also slightly slowed down. We need candor here. Of course, we were also slightly delayed in serving our customers. However, we are now at full strength again.

ChainCatcher: What is the biggest crisis you have encountered in your four-year career at BitMEX?

Stephan: When I joined BitMEX, it was at the peak of the bull market. But it soon turned into a bear market, and I needed to adapt to the shift and move forward. I wouldn't call it a crisis, but a challenge because the entire market is facing the same challenge. Keeping a company together is not as easy as some might think. Because in hindsight, some things may seem obvious, but actually from a forward perspective, you don't know what's going to happen in the future. This uncertainty is very challenging, but also very rewarding.

I come from the traditional financial industry, where there are usually 5-7 year cycles. But in the cryptocurrency field, the cycle is only about 6 months. Although overall, the bull and bear market may last for 3-4 years, there are actually smaller cycles within it that need to deal with new regulatory dynamics, product innovation, etc. So in the cryptocurrency space, a 6-month cycle is very different compared to a 5-year cycle. This fast-paced environment is exciting, but if you're not comfortable with it, the cryptocurrency industry may not be for you.

Make a more decentralized CEX

ChainCatcher: As centralized exchanges face more and more regulatory challenges, do you think the market share of decentralized exchanges will continue to grow in the future and become more competitive with centralized exchanges? How do you see the competitive landscape changing among crypto exchanges?

Stephan: Personally and for BitMEX, we hope to adopt more of the decentralized exchange model because this is our origin. This is what we want to see on an individual level as well. At the same time, there is a reason why BitMEX became a centralized exchange. Decentralized exchanges are always more competitive. For example, if you want to trade perpetual contracts, understand their mechanics, and are a good trader who can handle everything yourself, then a decentralized exchange may be better for you as you can get slightly better spreads, prices and fees.

But if you need more services, expect the service provider to adapt quickly, have customer support, etc. If you have a technical question and you want an answer quickly, then you may end up choosing a centralized exchange with good governance. They have a good governance model that allows users to participate in decision-making. This is not a pure, old-school centralized monopoly model, nor is it a decentralized exchange.

True decentralized exchange reforms are difficult to implement because they require a majority vote. So, you either act like a political party or you act like a cooperative. So that means everyone needs to know what they 're doing. If they don't know, this is why most DAOs fail.

What we saw with Distributed Autonomous Organizations (DAOs), which were a clear use case for cryptocurrencies, and I was passionate about them, they failed because they were set up in the wrong way in the first place, and then they failed at automation , because automation is rigid and cannot break out of this framework. It is implemented by technology. It can either succeed or fail, and there is no middle ground. Although DEX has become more modular, it only does one thing, so it won't break things, but it also cannot flexibly adapt. In contrast, centralized exchanges have the ability to adapt and provide customer support. Therefore, whether to choose a DEX or a centralized exchange mainly depends on what you need. But we still hope that DEX can flourish, because this is the original idea of ​​cryptocurrency.

The reason why we choose centralization is because we solve problems in a decentralized world, not to concentrate power on a certain point. Another point of view is that some people say that DEX can withstand regulation, but I don’t think so. It 's just that their regulation will come a little later because it's a new species. If you look at the situation with traditional centralized cryptocurrency exchanges, it took them several years to really experience regulatory pressure, which then hit the industry hard. Now that the situation is gradually improving, decentralized exchanges will face similar challenges. I don't believe in the assumption that DEXs don't need to do client authentication, that's wrong, it will come later, but it will come eventually.

I like the idea of ​​DEX, which is why I got into crypto, because I believe we should distribute power and economic benefits more broadly. We are now standing on the border between centralized exchanges and decentralized exchanges, and this is where we feel comfortable. So I believe we have plenty of room to grow, and that's usually the ultimate answer to the question. We have plenty of room to continue to grow. Of course, I also see that over time, decentralized exchanges may grow faster than centralized exchanges.

ChainCatcher: What is BitMEX’s current focus?

Stephan: The first is to solidify our core competencies - a continued focus on security, resiliency and reliability. These make us a trustworthy partner and exchange. We have survived three cryptocurrency winters and hope to survive many more.

We focus on proven infrastructure. Yes, this may make us a little slower in rolling out new features, but we believe doing so will pay off in the future. As we approach the next bull market, we also know that the next bear market is bound to come, possibly sooner. We will be committed to expanding our user base and providing better value to traders. For example, multi-asset margin trading will be launched next week, which can make trading simpler and easier to use.

The top priority is improving capital efficiency and ease of use. We will continue to expand the trading robot function, allowing individual traders to automate trading strategies, extend trading time, and obtain more profits. We will also take steps to increase the liquidity of altcoin contracts. Although we are excellent in Bitcoin trading contracts, the newly launched altcoin contracts need to strengthen liquidity. This is something we are working hard to resolve and we expect to see results by the end of January.

In short, our goal in the short term is to improve existing services so that individual traders can maintain the same competitiveness as institutional investors. These are our current focus.

Chaincatcher: Bitmex is currently focusing on Asian investors. Will there be plans to get involved in the US market in the future?

Stephan: Our main user base is Southeast Asia , which is also the focus of our attention . We also have a strong user base in the European time zone. But our core market is here. Therefore, we focus on this area. In view of the US elections and possible emotional changes, we are paying attention to this situation with a positive attitude, but we are also cautious. Because there are no substantial changes yet. Everything is just news now. It still needs to be observed without any policy or any changes. If the time is mature, we will re -evaluate the positioning.

At present, in the future, we will not accept US customers to register on the platform for a period of time. The reason is obvious, because the regulatory systems of countries around the world are too different. We want to do what we should do and follow the right way. We don't want shortcuts, we don't want to cut corners. Therefore, I must say in a diplomatic tone that we are focusing on the situation and holding a positive attitude, but we have not made any decisions.