Dialogue with Bitget CEO Gracy: Encryption does not require a "Wall Street Elite" character, Bitcoin should enter thousands of households

Author:Echo , MetaEra

In the male-dominated crypto industry, Gracy Chen is writing a different industry narrative with his unique career trajectory. From a Phoenix Finance reporter to Bitget CEO, from an industry observer to a change promoter, this female CEO with media insight and business execution led Bitget to rise against the trend in the bear market, and took three years to bring the exchange into the "three major institutions" discussion. This exclusive MetaEra interview not only reveals the business logic behind Bitget's rapid growth, but also shows a female leader's in-depth thinking on industry equality, talent strategy and crypto-inclusiveness.

Highlights

• Don’t talk about feminism and equal rights;
• We do not think that the crypto industry should be prideful of "Wall Street Elite". On the contrary, we firmly believe that Bitcoin should enter the homes of ordinary people;
• We pursue a result-oriented culture: as long as it can bring practical results to the job, anyone can achieve great development here.

Full text of the interview

MetaEra: In the previous photo of the Hong Kong currency circle OG dinner, you are the only woman in the meal. Did you notice this at that time? How would you define your role in this situation?

Gracy: I was not only the only woman, but also the only one who entered the circle after 2020. I officially entered the circle in early 2022. Compared with these big guys who were mining in 2012, I really have little experience. What's more interesting is that I'm the last person to attend the party. As soon as I entered the room, I found that there was only one empty space left. When I looked up, I saw a group of "Arhat Bureaus". After sitting down, I asked half-jokingly, am I the only girl today? Why don’t you just treat me as a brother! Today I am a brother.

Although I was jokingly saying this, I still feel a little regretful. There is only one female seat for the industry OG party of fifteen people. It is also a great honor because the platform behind me gives me the opportunity to communicate with these OGs and chat with everyone, which is very happy. The topic of discussion is also surprisingly simple – these predecessors have shown sincere concern for the latest developments in our exchange. You should know that many of them have already retired, some have bought estates in the United States to enjoy retirement, while others are focused on their families. But I will still ask with concern: "Gracy, what are the new trends on your exchange recently?"

What surprised me even more was that they also put forward many practical needs. For example, Bitcoin asset custody program - some seniors may hold thousands of Bitcoins, and they will have this concern: How to plan the distribution of inheritance for multiple children? Are there reliable trusts or exchanges that can provide professional services? I'm really starting to study this issue seriously. Of course, the details involved in legal compliance, regulatory docking, trust cooperation, etc. are also quite complicated. These topics are very interesting.

MetaEra: As your female CEO’s personality becomes more and more popular, there are more and more discussions on gender topics. Are you keen on these questions, think it is a traffic point, or are you more inclined to downplay the gender label?

Gracy: This depends on the situation. From the perspective of brand communication and market influence, in our industry environment, it is actually a good communication point. I am often asked related questions by the media. Topics that the media often pays attention to - such as the troubles faced by single mothers, how female CEOs can balance their careers and families - are real and interesting topics. I am willing to share these topics, and from the perspective of communication, it also makes sense, so I will not avoid it at all, and even say that I can use it deleveragingly. Since everyone wants to talk, let’s talk.

At work, especially at the level of "putting results to the desktop", I tend to ignore female identities. Whether for me personally or every member of the team, the quality of work results has nothing to do with gender. I tend to think that this character image has different meanings in different scenarios. We don’t talk about feminism, we talk about equal rights!

MetaEra: Bitget has grown rapidly in the past two years and has become the focus of the industry. What do you think are the core factors that drive rapid development?

Gracy: Looking back on our development history, it can be said that we have seized opportunities in the turmoil of the industry. Shortly after I joined the company in 2022, I encountered a series of industry black swan events such as the Luna collapse, Sanjian Capital and Celsius bankruptcy. These negative events dragged the industry into a bear market to a certain extent. But it is in such adversity that we have achieved a breakthrough - the core is that we always focus on product construction and service optimization, and regard the bear market as a valuable opportunity to lay a solid foundation.

When the market warms up, for example, the approval of the Bitcoin ETF in 2024 and the crypto-friendly president taking office and other positive factors emerge, and when the Bitcoin price breaks from the range of $60,000 to $90,000, we are fully prepared. This confirms our core philosophy: do the right thing at the right time. Our judgment and grasp of the industry cycle, coupled with the team's continuous investment in products and user experience, constitutes the dual engine of Bitget's rapid development. Our judgment of industry timing has always been quite accurate, and the core concept is: do the right thing at the right time. Of course, this sentence is simple, but how to judge what is the right thing requires stronger strategic capabilities.

MetaEra: Bitget 's brand marketing has repeatedly broken the circle, opening up a skylight for the promotion of the crypto industry, such as signing with Messi and CEO to creative communication of street photography videos, as well as the layout on platforms such as Xiaohongshu and Douyin, sky-high year-end bonuses... How did the team balance the professionalism of the crypto industry with the communication logic of the mass market?

Gracy: We don’t think the crypto industry should be posing as a tall “Wall Street Elite”. On the contrary, we firmly believe that Bitcoin should enter the homes of ordinary people - if you do not hold Bitcoin yet, you should start buying from now on and establishing your own position. This concept of "inclusive finance" determines our communication strategy: always stay close to the public and listen carefully to the voice of the community. For example, when choosing coins, we will focus on tokens that are truly loved by users and have considerable coin addresses.

As for street videos, they are purely some of their personal hobbies. My first job was to be a media person at Phoenix Finance, and the genes of media people made me always like to share. When I was in my 20s, I was particularly eager to hear the experiences of those who have experienced it. Now it is my turn to stand in this position. Naturally, I hope to pass on my workplace insights and life experience to more young people in this form.

MetaEra: Based on the 10,000 campus recruitment resumes some time ago, the hot events of 28 people finally joined. What are the talent selection mechanisms and considerations behind it? What experiences can you share?

Gracy: We did receive tens of thousands of applications from top universities around the world for this campus recruitment, but it should be emphasized that in Bitget's talent selection system, academic background is exactly the factor we pay the least attention to. Whether it is campus recruitment, social recruitment or talent circulation within the industry, we always adhere to the same set of value evaluation standards: what value can candidates create, what fields they are good at, what career demands are, and whether these match Bitget's development needs.

Based on this, our team composition is very diverse. As for example, the proportion of female executives in our female executives reaches 44% - this figure itself illustrates the problem. In Bitget, the "sensitive items" in traditional recruitment such as gender, marriage and childbearing status will not affect employment decisions at all.

In fact, joining Bitget itself is not that difficult, and the real challenge is to continue to create value. We pursue a result-oriented culture: as long as it can bring practical results to the job, anyone can achieve great development here.

MetaEra: The industry often discusses the "three major institutions" pattern. Bitget has already entered the top camp in many data aspects. Will it be convenient to disclose some key data performance and what other strong actions will be made this year?

Gracy: Judging from the exchange rankings of CoinMarketcap and CoinGecko, we remained in the top five in both spot and contract businesses, and some indicators even entered the top three. But data is just a manifestation, and I am more concerned about whether we can do things well. Bitget started out as a service for retail investors, and since last year we have systematically deployed institutional business. When we build our institutional business, I am confident that we will move forward.

MetaEra: Your career path is very representative. You are also a media person and have come to your current position along the way. Do you have any suggestions for newcomers who are similar to your development steps?

Gracy: Rather than saying it is a suggestion, it is better to share some personal experiences. The media experience will indeed give me unique advantages: strong external communication skills, influence building skills, and a keen sense of industry. But it is indeed very different from the operation of the exchange.

From a media person to a CEO of the exchange, I have been walking for ten years - from graduating from college in 2014 to officially becoming Bitget CEO in May 2024. This journey is full of twists and turns. It started its first business from 2015 to 2016. It then served as co-founder and CEO positions in different companies, and also studied for MIT's MBA. There have been many changes and twists and turns along the way, and these experiences have taught me a lot: while leveraging the innate advantages of media people, we must calm down to make up for the hard skills of business management. This includes pragmatic operational strategies, solid team management, and macro-strategic judgment. When you organically combine these media "soft power" with business "hard skills" and then do things steadily. Many things happen naturally.

MetaEra: You can briefly introduce the latest products of Bitget.

Gracy: We recently released an Onchain (on-chain transaction) product, which is an important step for Bitget to lay out the on-chain ecosystem. Previously, we released a product called Bitget Seed, which was a major upgrade based on Bitget Seed. Simply put, it allows users to fully experience decentralized transactions in centralized exchanges, while opening up on-chain transaction barriers. At present, Onchain has supported popular public chains such as Solana (SOL), BNB Smart Chain (BSC) and Base.

For example, if you use a traditional decentralized exchange (Dex) to trade, you need to first enter the contract address of the token, and properly manage your private key, and also perform many cross-chain bridge operations. And we integrate these complicated processes into Onchain products. The AI ​​in the product will help you filter tokens, and the purchase process is also very smooth. In this way, users can realize the trading experience of decentralized exchanges in centralized exchanges. To encourage users to experience Onchain, we also provide several incentives.