Recently, OKX founder and CEO @star_okx participated in an in-depth interview with quant and crypto analyst Julien (@thatismyquant, co-founder of Mirov). In this one-hour conversation, Star openly shared OKX’s global compliance landscape, internal AI practices, minimalist trading philosophy, and his thoughts on the next five years for the industry. Below is the complete dialogue from this interview:

1. Expanding into Europe: Transition from a Tech Team to Top FinTech

Julien: Welcome everyone. I am Julien, co-founder of Mirov. I am very honored to sit with Star, CEO and founder of OKX today. First, I need to clarify that our conversation today does not constitute any financial investment advice. OKX has over 100 million registered accounts and processes hundreds of billions in transactions weekly, making it one of the largest crypto platforms in the world. How have you been, Star?

Star: Hello Julien, I am very happy to communicate with the community.

Julien: The current crypto market is very hot, and OKX's development is also very rapid. What prompted you to choose to engage deeply with the European community at this juncture?

Star: In fact, OKX has been laying the groundwork in Europe since 2017 and 2018. Our corporate culture is very clear: we will never touch the compliance red line.

In the early days, we were a purely technical team. When we went to meet regulators with top-notch technology and products, their first question was, “Who are you? I want to see your corporate governance and compliance structure.” Those years were a painful transformation period for us.

By 2023 and 2024, we have constantly iterated on our hard strengths. Today, I can proudly say that OKX is a true FinTech company—“Fin” represents rigorous governance and compliance, while “Tech” represents extreme products and user experiences.

We have obtained MiCA, MiFID, and payment licenses in Europe. Regulators come to our office for on-site inspections every six months. It’s because we are prepared that when the MiCA deadline arrives, we see a massive transfer of users from offshore platforms to compliant platforms, with OKX being their first choice. We have been keeping a low profile in the past, and now we are ready to be closer to the community and listen to everyone's voices.

2. Legendary Start: 10,000 BTC and Memories with Vitalik

Julien: Let's turn the clock back to when you first got involved with cryptocurrencies. Do you remember your first crypto asset purchase?

Star: That was around 2011, when I watched the American drama "The Good Wife," where a character exclaimed, “Bitcoin is the future!” I was curious, so I Googled Satoshi Nakamoto's whitepaper and then registered on Mt.Gox. At that time, I was with a CTO background and controlled hundreds of servers, so I wrote code to test mining using these servers.

The first time I bought Bitcoin, the price was about $10.

Julien: I heard that you earned 10,000 bitcoins early on through a dice game?

Star: Haha, that was around 2012 or 2013, with a game called Just a Dice, which was essentially a liquidity pool. The platform's win rate was 51%, and users got 49%, with the code and mathematical logic on-chain.

I discovered that its random seed was relatively simple, and through data statistics, I could deduce trends. So, I wrote a market-making algorithm: when the platform lost money, I increased my investment; when the platform made money, I withdrew funds. Eventually, I invested in this liquidity pool through the algorithm and earned about 10,000 bitcoins. Each bet back then was 500 BTC, and it was a fascinating experience.

Julien: What other early experiences left a strong impression on you?

Star: When OKX was founded in 2013, most platforms only supported Bitcoin, while we were the first platform in the world to launch Litecoin, which brought us massive traffic. But by 2017, I had also become conservative. When Ethereum was just rising, Vitalik personally reached out to me: “Star, would you consider listing Ethereum?” I mistakenly thought it was a “shitcoin,” thereby missing the earliest opportunity. This taught me that I must always remain open to innovation.

3. The Underlying Logic of Outperforming the Market: “Bitcoin Beats Any Fund”

Julien: From making your first million dollars to a billion, what changes occurred in your life? What's the most interesting thing you've bought with the money earned from Bitcoin?

Star: I am not the kind of person who likes to flaunt “I am rich”; that’s not my style. My biggest realization is that the money I made in the fifth year after college surpassed the total of the previous four years; and the money in the tenth year far exceeded the total of the previous nine years.

If you want to establish yourself in the crypto industry, the most important thing is to build a “nexus” between you and this industry.

I know countless friends who run trading companies and manage hundreds of millions or even billions in funds. My conclusion is: no fund can outperform Bitcoin.

I often joke in the community: “If you don’t even have 10 bitcoins, don’t come to our industry conference; what kind of crypto practitioner are you?” For the vast majority of people, your foundational asset allocation should be Bitcoin.

Julien: As the head of the world's largest trading platform, what common traits have you observed in successful traders?

Star: Trading is an extremely serious professional task. Some seek the thrill of liquidation and profit, but professional traders have only two core elements: strict risk control and strong self-discipline. In the crypto market, the most important point is always: ensure you are always on the table.

4. The Next Five Years of Products: RWA, AI, and Boundless FinTech

Julien: What innovative products can European users expect to experience on OKX in the coming months?

Star: We are fully focused on a few core directions:

1. Strategy Bot Marketplace: The alpha of the data is clear—users who use bots have significantly better average profitability (PnL) than regular manual trading users. We have introduced AI to analyze the market and recommend the best parameters, and in the future, will also support users sharing their algorithmic strategies.
2. Simple Options: Based on MiFID licenses, we launched options and introduced simple options tools with built-in “cash-secured puts” and other Buffett-style advanced strategies.
3. Tokenized Stocks and RWA: We have launched perpetual contracts for equity in SpaceX, OpenAI, etc., and partnered with the compliant project XStock in Liechtenstein to offer compliant spot tokenized stocks.
4. Extremely Low-Interest Lending: Many platforms in Europe charge an annualized lending rate as high as 300%, while OKX employs a market-driven dynamic interest rate, with annualized borrowing costs as low as 1.5%, and 90% of profits go directly to users on the lending side.

Julien: You previously mentioned that OKX has been deeply using AI. Can you elaborate on that?

Star: Currently, over 90% of routine coding and testing tasks at OKX are 100% automated by AI. Our product managers input the PRD into our self-developed AI platform, which automatically generates code and runs through tens of thousands of tests, with engineers finally reviewing and releasing it.

The financial technology of the next five years will be completely restructured based on blockchain and AI. Traditional cross-border remittance fees of 5% to 10% are absurd. Through stablecoins and self-custody technologies (like OKX Pay’s 2-of-2 multi-signature architecture), we can achieve zero-cost settlement 24/7 globally. Our vision is to create seamless, fair, and equitable next-generation FinTech services for the global younger generation.

5. Advice for Young People: Don’t Be a CEO, Be a Resilient Person

Julien: One last question, if you could travel back 15 years, what would you say to that 20-year-old preparing to start OKX?

Star: I would tell him: “Go be a VP or CTO, don’t be a CEO!” (laughs)

Being a CEO means you have to bear all the pressure, work 12 hours a day, eat the same boxed lunch as before starting your business, and face countless regulatory reviews and market storms. If you just want to enjoy life, being a partner or VP is much happier.

But if you must start a business, remember the three factors for entrepreneurial success:

1. Luck: 90% of entrepreneurial failures are normal; luck and timing determine most of the outcomes;
2. Resilience: No one can have a perfect vision from the start. OKX's strategy has iterated dozens of times; when lacking funds and facing immense pressure, resilience is more important than capital;
3. Smart: Working hard without looking up to see the path is meaningless, you must continuously enhance your fundamental understanding of the world and the industry.

Julien: Thank you very much for Star's sincere sharing today!

Star: Thank you, Julien. See you at Token2049 in Singapore!