Organizer: momo, ChainCatcher

Guest: Vugar Usi, MEXC CEO

In August at Coinfest Asia 2026 in Bali, at the podium of the Alpha Arena S03 trading competition, MEXC's new CEO Vugar Usi personally handed the champion trophy to the Japanese competitor. Below, there were traders from 12 countries and over ten thousand spectators.

Beyond the spotlight, this newly appointed CEO is pondering a more fundamental question: who exactly is the exchange built for?

In April 2026, MEXC celebrated its eighth anniversary. It was at this juncture that the platform officially announced the appointment of Vugar Usi as the new CEO, simultaneously completing a brand upgrade centered on “zero fees and infinite opportunities.”

With a career spanning from Facebook, Sony, Bain to Bitget, Vugar Usi's resume covers internet giants, traditional consulting, and cryptocurrency exchanges. During his time as COO at Bitget, the platform’s users grew from 20 million to 120 million, making it one of the top exchanges globally. However, this experience led him to question: approximately 80% of the trading volume on leading platforms comes from institutions, and the product logic revolves around “big players,” is that really all there is to the industry?

This year, he chose a different path and joined MEXC. The positioning of this established exchange resonated with him instantly, serving ordinary investors (Underdog) with zero fees that bring the threshold down to nothing, making “trading everything” possible and integrating TradFi and the crypto world into one super platform.

At Coinfest Asia 2026, Vugar Usi accepted an exclusive interview with ChainCatcher, sharing his motivations for joining MEXC, the path of merging TradFi and crypto, the commercial logic behind zero fees, and his judgment on the industry landscape in the next three years.

1. After joining MEXC, what is your highest priority?

1. ChainCatcher: You have worked for global giants like Facebook and Sony, what led you to enter the crypto industry? After leaving Bitget, why did you choose MEXC, what impressed you the most about this platform?

Vugar Usi: I have worked in traditional finance and internet giants like Facebook. I entered the crypto industry because I recognized a trend; this industry evolves too quickly, traditional finance and the digital world are merging.

MEXC is a product of this fusion. We currently offer more traditional financial assets than crypto assets; beyond over 3000 digital assets, we also provide over 7000 stocks, as well as commodities, precious metals, and other assets. I want to bring the discipline, compliance, and regulatory thinking of traditional finance into this industry, making MEXC not only grow quickly but also grow sustainably.

As for why I left Bitget, the answer is straightforward. During my time at Bitget, I served as COO, and users grew from 20 million to 120 million, ranking third globally.

While I achieved commendable results, I was contemplating a question about who exchanges ultimately create opportunities for. You will find that for the leading exchanges, about 80% of their trading volume comes from institutions, in other words, they are built “for institutions.” But MEXC is different; our main customers are Underdogs, ordinary investors. This is precisely why I chose MEXC, and it is also the reason for the brand upgrade to “the gateway to infinite opportunities,” where zero fees bring the threshold down to zero, allowing ordinary people to truly reach these opportunities.

2. ChainCatcher: As MEXC celebrates its eighth anniversary, what is the core priority for the next phase?

Vugar Usi: We are building MEXC into a “life on chain” platform; any life scenario that can be moved to the chain will eventually be put on chain.

People may be familiar with our first-list and zero-fee features, but MEXC is no longer just a crypto exchange. By tokenizing real-world assets like stocks and commodities, we connect traditional finance with the decentralized digital world, while retaining the native genes of crypto.

On the savings side, we have introduced products that guarantee initial capital, have lower risk, and are inclined towards long-term wealth accumulation, providing attractive annual percentage yields (APY), which are almost “no-brainer” returns.

On the consumption side, the MEXC card links earning, trading, saving, investing, and consumption into a complete closed loop, providing substantial cashback, as we eliminate a lot of middlemen to return more value to users.

Last year, zero fees helped users save about 1.1 billion dollars in fees, averaging around 320 dollars per person, while some “big players” saved seven to eight million dollars. We do not engage in flashy activities or make huge sponsorships but rather return the opportunities and benefits to users, committed to making “reinvesting in users” part of the company’s DNA.

3. ChainCatcher: You have consistently emphasized the brand philosophy of “Infinite Opportunities,” what does it actually mean?

Vugar Usi: “Infinite Opportunities” stems from my reflections after reading Simon Sinek's “The Infinite Game,” where life is not a zero-sum game; you don’t have to lose for me to win, we can win together. The more participants there are, the larger the overall pie, and the more each person gets.

For MEXC, each user’s journey is unique, and we hope that everyone who comes to the platform can find the opportunity that suits them best, make money and improve their lives; that is the significance of “Infinite Opportunities.”

2. What is MEXC's differentiated route in the merging race of TradFi and Crypto?

4. ChainCatcher: We see that crypto exchanges and traditional brokers are penetrating each other's businesses, how do you view the opportunities and challenges presented by this cross-industry fusion?

Vugar Usi: The value of cross-industry fusion lies in integrating all assets into a super platform, allowing user funds to flow faster and with less loss. In the traditional model, a transaction must go through banks, financial advisors, brokers, and layers of intermediaries, with each layer taking a cut. Today on MEXC, you can trade tokenized stocks or even real stocks at a 1:1 exchange rate, just like someone in the US, without location or currency restrictions, and it can be completed in seconds instead of waiting days or weeks.

So I say that while it may be a bear market now, this is the “best bear market.” The crypto market is not as bustling; traders are still trading real-world assets like gold, silver, oil, and stocks, and funds will quickly flow back into the crypto world, initiating a new cycle. By then, you will be able to rebalance Bitcoin in a single day, buy hot semiconductor stocks at noon, and hedge with gold in the evening; two years ago, these tasks could take a week or even ten days. The speed of capital flow combined with zero fees creates an environment for wealth creation, and AI is making all of this faster.

5. ChainCatcher: In the wave of merging TradFi and Crypto, how does MEXC plan to stand out? What is your differentiated route compared to peers?

Vugar Usi: After joining MEXC, I personally had been using MEXC, and over time, I understood why users choose it and why they can't live without it.

The first reason is list-first. MEXC always presents quality projects to users first, often two to three weeks or even a month ahead of other exchanges, making it a great place to discover new opportunities. Today it applies not only to digital assets but also to stocks; we were the first platform globally to list SpaceX stock shares. In the future, when new AI-related IPOs emerge, we will also be at the forefront.

The second reason is zero fees. Fees are a barrier to entry; they complicate and make trading expensive, and sometimes even profitable trades might not yield earnings due to high fees; zero fees allow users to participate at the lowest cost and is one of the greatest “equalizers” in the industry.

There's an even bigger reason; we build the platform in advance before users need it. If the New York Stock Exchange or NASDAQ truly wants to become 24/7 trading, we have long been that way, and real stocks can be traded here at any time. We don’t want to follow trends; we prefer to proactively build what you might need in the future.

6. ChainCatcher: Zero fees are key to attracting users strategically. How does MEXC maintain a sustainable business model under this zero-fee policy and capture long-term value?

Vugar Usi: MEXC is taking a different path, avoiding extravagant sponsorships. We won’t spend 100 million dollars sponsoring F1 or millions on signing La Liga or football stars; instead, we return this money to the community through zero fees.

Last year we saved users about 1.1 billion dollars, which could have been a marketing budget; however, the community saw the value and thus continued using MEXC. As a joke, I even wish I could be the CMO of MEXC rather than the CEO right now, to manage these “beneficial activities.”

Today, almost our entire spot market is zero fees; of the over 3000 trading pairs in futures and digital assets, about 200 have zero fees; all stock and tokenized stock products are also zero fees. This makes us one of the best places to obtain new experiences and exposure at the lowest cost.

7. ChainCatcher: MEXC is prioritizing the expansion of stocks, ETFs, and commodities. How will this reshape your user acquisition strategy?

Vugar Usi: There are two lines. One is the crypto natives; for Generation Z and millennials, their first investment is often in crypto assets. In the past, we were all trapped in a crypto cycle, chasing Bitcoin price rises and falls, rushing into altcoins, and creating memes; thanks to tokenization, today we can look broader at where the world's money is flowing, whether to allocate to stocks, or to attempt new investment tools.

This diversifies user portfolios and allows us to step out of a single cycle, presenting us with unprecedented opportunities.

On the other side are those who have invested through banks and have been unable to access new opportunities; stocks and tokenization have helped them establish trust in this market for the first time. We see more and more traditional institutions and family offices entering the space; their mindset isn’t seeking tenfold or twentyfold returns but rather, “I already invest in stocks, how can I hedge against the S&P 500 with Bitcoin to reduce risk?” When these two user types meet on the same platform, what comes is not just products, but liquidity and capital inflow; this is the next-generation financial super platform we are building.

3. How will the exchange landscape evolve in the next three years?

8. ChainCatcher: MEXC is committed to evolving from a trading platform to a “trusted financial gateway.” Among safety, compliance, transparency, and liquidity, which will be your top priority in the coming year? Why?

Vugar Usi: First, transparency. Since taking office in November last year, we have consistently cooperated with third-party institutions to publish proof of reserves (PoR), making us the world's second exchange to open its doors to independent verification agencies. We uphold the commitment to a 1:1 reserve, with Bitcoin and Ethereum reserves at around 160%, and stablecoin reserves at approximately 130%.

Next is safety. MEXC has never had a security incident, but to be among the top three exchanges in the world and provide first-class service, we must continually invest in user safety. Our user safety fund (Guardian Fund) initially had a scale of 100 million dollars, maintained for several years; later, we committed to expanding its scale to 500 million dollars over the next two years and have already increased reserves by acquiring 1,000 BTC as part of this expansion, making it one of the largest user safety funds in the world. Additionally, we have a contract insurance fund of 770 million dollars.

I believe that soon, when people think of MEXC, they won’t have to specifically think about whether it is safe or transparent; it should be a self-evident premise. What will set us apart will be zero fees, opportunities, user experience, and continuous innovation, all grounded in trust and safety.

9. ChainCatcher: MEXC’s services cover over 170 markets. Which regional markets are currently driving growth? Where will your next round of expansion focus?

Vugar Usi: Southeast Asia is our strong market, and we plan to maintain our leadership there. Turkey, Eastern Europe, and the Middle East have continuously experienced rapid growth over the past two to three years, and we have invested heavily in these regions.

Since my appointment, I have particularly focused on Latin America and Africa, viewing them as frontier markets for expansion growth. The potential in these two markets has yet to be fully tapped, and we can offer a complete product line from trading, savings to card investments and consumption, continuously onboarding more users, which is the key focus for the next stage.

10. ChainCatcher: Looking ahead to the next three years, do you think the exchange landscape will further concentrate towards giants like Binance and Coinbase, or will it trend towards multipolarity? Is there a variable that is most likely to disrupt the landscape?

Vugar Usi: My judgment is that the future won’t be a “battle between exchanges,” it’s not a one-on-one between Coinbase and Binance. Robinhood is entering the scene, Revolut is entering, Monzo and various emerging digital banks and trading platforms are also entering. Thanks to “banking as a service” and various integrations and collaborations, competition will increasingly concern connection, branding, and trust, as well as whether you can provide these services “tomorrow.”

Perhaps Robinhood will become your biggest digital asset service provider, or Revolut may transition from a bank into a trading platform, and today’s largest exchange might become your future mortgage provider or banking service provider.

Regardless of how the landscape evolves, super platforms will provide users with better and more seamless choices. Just as when hailing a ride, you choose to open Grab or Uber based on your location, in the future we will see financial products that integrate all aspects of life, allowing users to seamlessly resolve their issues in one place.

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