In the crypto industry, many stories do not start in the spotlight.
Tight cash flow, unanswered partnership requests, and extreme market squeezes. Facing the strong players of the time, newcomers often had to endure more effort and hardship.
Every choice made is amplified into results in the future. Some are forced to say goodbye, while others use failure as a calibrator, repeatedly correcting their course.
But fate always favors those who refuse to be mediocre and make a comeback.
The PUMP launch event brought the handling of different platforms into the same spotlight. Many exchanges encountered varying degrees of problems, but this rising star secured the largest allocation among all its peers, and its solution received the most praise.
The protagonist of this story is Bitget.
This year marks Bitget’s first seven years, but in fact, Bitget’s current success did not come easily. At one point, it even faced a situation where its startup funds were nearly depleted.
How did this exchange transform from an industry supporting role to a leading player in just seven years? What kind of determination does the recently proposed UEX (Universal Exchange) represent? We will delve into Bitget’s core transformations and initiatives to reveal the development context behind them.
From 2018 to 2025, Reform in the First Seven Years
1. Bold Decisions, USDT Opportunity, Social Trading, Growth Finally Begins
In 2018, the crypto market was experiencing a harsh winter. For the fledgling Bitget, this was undoubtedly the most brutal entrepreneurial test—a streamlined team of dozens had to maintain spot trading while also exploring the contract market, yet found themselves in a difficult predicament on both fronts.
With funds nearly exhausted, Bitget made a bold, “cutting off one’s own arm” decision: suspend spot trading and focus all resources on the contract track. This seemingly risky choice laid a crucial foundation for its later rise.
The turning point came in July 2019. Through in-depth market research, the team keenly identified users’ urgent demand for USDT-settled linear contracts. Bitget responded quickly, launching an innovative linear contract product. This decision was spot-on—the product’s trading volume exceeded $100 million on its first day, injecting strong momentum into the platform.
The innovation didn’t stop there. At the end of 2019, they targeted a brand new blue ocean market—social trading. In May 2020, the copy trading feature was officially launched, aiming to bridge professional traders and novices. However, although the initial version attracted hundreds of traders, the complex user experience became a bottleneck for growth.
Facing this challenge, at the end of 2020, the management team held a “closed-door retreat” at a remote restaurant to reconstruct the product. Adhering to the “simplicity is the ultimate sophistication” design philosophy, they drastically streamlined redundant features, simplifying complex processes. This revision broke through the user experience bottleneck, ushering in another wave of growth and cementing Bitget’s leading position in contract trading.
Three years later, in 2021, Bitget relaunched its spot trading business. Relying on its solid foundation, Bitget successfully made a comeback in the spot market, evolving from a single contract trading platform to a comprehensive leading exchange with both spot and contract trading.
2. Acquisitions, Investments, the Next Growth Point: Web3 Ecosystem
While most exchanges in the crypto world were still competing in traditional business tracks, Bitget had already begun planning a grander strategy—evolving from a single trading platform to a Web3 ecosystem builder.
The key step in this transformation was the strategic acquisition of the BitKeep wallet.
In March 2023, Bitget announced the acquisition of a controlling stake in BitKeep for $30 million. Five months later, BitKeep officially rebranded as Bitget Wallet, introducing a new vision of “faster trading, better assets,” while maintaining independence between the wallet and the exchange from the outset.
This acquisition was far from a simple brand integration; it was a strategic move for Bitget to build a panoramic Web3 ecosystem. In May 2025, Bitget Wallet underwent another brand upgrade, launching the slogan “Crypto for Everyone” and earning a good reputation among users.
In terms of product matrix, Bitget Wallet has built a complete ecosystem around the four major scenarios of “trading, wealth management, payment, and exploration”:
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Cross-chain trading supporting over 20 public chains
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Innovative GetGas feature to solve new users’ gas fee concerns
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Issuance of the Bitget Wallet Visa card, bridging crypto and traditional financial payments
Crypto for Everyone is not just a slogan, and Bitget’s actions are not limited to the wallet. Bitget Onchain and GetAgent are two major products recently launched to help users trade.
Bitget Onchain connects CEX and DEX, allowing users to directly use assets in their Bitget spot accounts to trade on-chain without manuallycross-chaining or switching wallets, greatly lowering the threshold for on-chain trading. In September this year, the Onchain platform announced support for all on-chain assets on ETH, BSC, Base, and SOL chains, expanding the trading boundaries of traditional financial assets and becoming the world’s first UEX (Universal Exchange) to support all assets.
GetAgent is Bitget’s first all-in-one crypto trading assistant. AI is a hot topic this year, and every industry is exploring how to integrate with AI. For trading, Bitget’s answer is: make trading as easy as chatting.
GetAgent simplifies the crypto trading process with AI technology, integrating over 50 professional trading tools and providing services such as market analysis, strategy formulation, smart money tracking, risk assessment, and trade execution. For example, you can inquire about today’s market, the specifics of a certain token, trending on-chain coins, and more.
Recently, as RWA is trending, Bitget also took the lead in collaborating with Ondo Finance, launching 100+ US stock tokens and US stock contracts.
Crypto for Everyone—Bitget is providing users with answers through wallets, on-chain,AI, and various other means.
The recently proposed UEX (Universal Exchange) aims to break the “impossible triangle” of user experience, asset diversity, and security in exchanges, integrating the advantages of CEX and DEX to create a unified platform for users.
Bitget CEO Gracy stated: UEX will integrate a unified ecosystem of multiple asset classes, including all mainstream tokens & innovative assets, seamless integration of traditional and crypto assets, true 24/7 operation, ultra-fast experience, and institutional-grade risk control, among others.
While many have yet to realize it, Nasdaq officially announced the launch of “24/5” trading services in March this year, but Gracy firmly believes the real future is not just “24/5,” but “24/7”—a financial world that is uninterrupted, borderless, and frictionless.
UEX currently supports US stocks, US stock contracts, and other products. In the future, it plans to gradually include stocks, ETFs, gold, forex, and other high-quality global assets, enabling users to seamlessly participate in global market trading. For more details, refer to: CEO’s 7th Anniversary Open Letter
3. Entering the Institutional Market: Upgrading from “Barbaric Growth” to “Professionalization”
While maintaining its retail business advantage, in 2025, Bitget began a comprehensive layout of the institutional services market, shifting its business focustowards ToB.
Better rates and experience. In its institutional service system, Bitget first launched the upgraded VIP “PRO” plan. Institutional users not only enjoy more favorable trading fees but also higher API call frequencies and an optimized trading environment, truly achieving a professional-grade trading experience.
Fund security is always the top concern for institutional clients. To address this, Bitget innovatively launched professional fund custody services. Through a “1:1 entrusted mapping” mechanism, institutional clients’ funds are locked in custody wallets, ensuring asset security while maintaining trading flexibility. This dual protection mechanism greatly enhances institutional clients’ trust.
Liquidity incentive program. In liquidity management, Bitget has introduced a more competitive incentive plan for market makers. By optimizing the fee structure and establishing a dynamic reward mechanism, the platform has attracted a large number of high-quality liquidity providers. Officially announced partners include:
Vataga Crypto, optimizing execution speed and liquidity for high-frequency and professional trading, providing seamless access to Bitget’s incentive mechanism for intraday traders.
DWF Labs, collaborating with Bitget to enhance USD1 spot and derivatives liquidity.
Pulsar, providing liquidity support for spot and derivatives markets, enhancing Bitget’s overall liquidity depth.
For exchanges, balancing the C-end and B-end can demonstrate strong resilience during market volatility. Although B-end demand is relatively harder to meet or more targeted, this step is also a key move for Bitget to gradually evolve from a platform for ordinary users to a comprehensive crypto service provider capable of meeting various professional needs.
Exchange “Infrastructure” Construction: The “Arms Race” of Talent and Compliance
4. Building the Foundation, Cultivating Talent, Bitget Focuses on Young Power
The core of enterprise competition is talent competition, which is especially prominent in AI and crypto. What makes Bitget attractive to talent?
Is the year-end bonus thecore competitiveness?
Of course not. The year-end bonus is a reward for those who create substantial value for the company. According to several insiders, Bitget has always adhered to a pragmatic philosophy in internal management, implementing flat management and full empowerment.
Outstanding employees deserve corresponding authority and incentives. At the same time, the company advocates an efficient and direct communication culture, encouraging team members to face problems head-on and provide timely feedback, avoiding the inefficiency caused by hierarchical reporting. This management style enables the company to maintainagility and competitiveness in a rapidly changing market.
In terms of talent development strategy, Bitget has launched a global graduate program targeting outstanding graduates with a global vision and innovative spirit. The program offers diverse career development opportunities in operations, product, marketing, risk control, and more, not only opening the door to the Web3 industry for young talent but also continuously injecting innovative vitality into the company.
Currently, Bitget has developed into an international company with over 2,000 employees. Through this comprehensive talent system, Bitget is building a global team with strong innovation and adaptability, laying a solid foundation for the company’s long-term development.
5. Raising Funds, Innovating Mechanisms, BGB Is No Longer Just a Platform Token
In this market cycle, which is particularly harsh for assets other than bitcoin, Bitget’s platform token BGB has shown remarkable resilience. So far, BGB has risen 372% in a year, becoming one of the few high-quality assets to outperform bitcoin. Behind this achievement are Bitget’s carefully designed deflationary mechanism and comprehensive ecosystem layout.
In December 2024, Bitget released a new BGB whitepaper and launched an unprecedented buyback and burn plan.
The platform committed to burning BGB tokens worth over $5 billion, about 40% of the total supply. In the first round of burning, Bitget permanently destroyed 800 million BGB held by the core team in one go, reducing the circulating supply to 1.2 billion, achieving 100% full circulation and completely eliminating any possibility of reserved tokens or future releases.
Entering 2025, Bitget innovatively launched a “dual-track burn” mechanism.
On one hand, based on the actual on-chain activity of the Bitget Wallet ecosystem, the gas fees generated by users are used as the burn base;
On the other hand, a fixed proportion of burn quota is set, creating a self-driven supply and demand adjustment mechanism. This mechanism achieved significant results in the first quarter of 2025, completing the burn of 30,006,905 BGB, about 2.5% of the total supply, far exceeding the industry average.
In early September, BGB was upgraded again to the Morph public chain token, with 220 million $BGB burned in one go, worth $1.09 billion!
At this point, BGB has become the core token integrating exchange, wallet, and public chain.
On the centralized exchange level, BGB is not only used to pay trading fees but also serves as an important credential for users to participate in platform governance and obtain various rights. By holding BGB, users can enjoy trading fee discounts and participate in innovative projects such as Launchpad, Launchpool, and PoolX.
On the wallet side, BGB is integrated with Bitget Wallet, allowing users holding BGB on-chain to have the opportunity to receive airdrops from quality projects, enjoy trading fee reductions, and more.
On the public chain side, users can stake BGB on the Morph chain to participate in ecosystem construction, provide liquidity in decentralized trading, or use it as collateral in DeFi lending protocols. After becoming the Morph public chain token, its consumption scenarios have further increased.
6. Building the Brand and Reputation: Investing in Sponsorships and Public Welfare
When people mention Bitget, they often think of its iconic blue double-arrow logo and the image of global football superstar Messi as its brand ambassador—this is the result of Bitget’s continuous brand building.
In terms of visual identity, Bitget adopted a “subtraction” strategy in July 2023 to simplify and upgrade its brand logo. The new logo centers on a minimalist double-arrow, symbolizing Bitget’s mission to connect traditional finance and digital assets.
On the brand ambassador front, Bitget signed legendary football star Messi in 2022. This strategic choice paid off significantly after Messi led Argentina to win the World Cup, greatly enhancing the brand’s global influence.
Subsequently, Bitget continued to expand its influence in the global market, adhering to a diversified sports marketing strategy. It became the official crypto partner of LaLiga in East Asia, Southeast Asia, and Latin America, and also the official partner of MotoGP, the world’s top motorcycle road racing event.
In terms of public welfare, Bitget reached a three-year public welfare cooperation with UNICEF, using innovative education models and blockchain technology to empower young women and educators in developing countries.
To deepen its global presence, Bitget is actively establishing regional operation centers in Asia and Latin America and plans to enter the European and African markets. The platform’s “Bitget Wallet Champion” global community influencer program is dedicated to cultivating “crypto evangelists” and promoting Web3 adoption. Notably, Bitget joined the UNICEF Game Changers Coalition, supporting blockchain skills training projects in eight countries, demonstrating the platform’s commitment to promoting inclusive finance.
7. Focusing on Compliance and Security: Aggressively Obtaining Licenses
In the digital asset industry, security is always the top priority.
Since taking the lead in launching the proof-of-reserves mechanism in December 2022, Bitget has maintained regular monthly updates to ensure the user asset reserve ratio does not fall below 1:1. As of September 2025, the platform’s total reserve ratio has risen to 186%, demonstrating strong asset reserves.
The latest audit report shows that Bitget maintains ample reserves for all major assets. The platform holds 30,753.11 BTC, while user assets are only 9,395.3 BTC, with a reserve ratio of 327%. For stablecoins, USDT reserves reach 1.945 billion, covering the 1.93 billion held by users, with a coverage rate of 101%. USDC reserves are also healthy, with the platform holding 143 million and user assets at 114 million, for a reserve ratio of 125%. Ethereum assets are even more outstanding, with the platform holding 308,082.22 ETH and user accounts totaling 139,140.23 ETH, corresponding to a reserve ratio of 221%.
To further enhance user asset security, Bitget established a $300 million Protection Fund, which has now grown to $700 million, creating a dual asset protection system. The fund aims to provide users with additional security, effectively responding to extreme market volatility or unexpected risk events.
Bitget is also continuing its efforts in compliance.
In April 2025, Chief Legal Officer Hon Ng reiterated the platform’s global compliance commitment in an open letter. Against the backdrop of global compliance, Bitget has now obtained more than eight regulatory licenses in Australia, the UK, Italy, Poland, Lithuania, the Czech Republic, El Salvador, and other countries, and continues to advance compliance in more jurisdictions.
From an obscure contract exchange to a global leading digital asset platform, Bitget has achieved breakthrough after breakthrough in seven years.
In Bitget’s recently released August 2025 Transparency Report, the platform disclosed the latest developments and key progress in its core business areas. According to data from The Block and Coinglass, Bitget ranks among the top three global CEXs in terms of open interest for bitcoin (BTC) and ethereum (ETH) contracts. Specifically, bitcoin open interest exceeded $10 billion, while ethereum remained in the $5–7 billion range, rising to $6 billion by the end of August.
Additionally, CoinDesk’s “Market Data Depth Report” pointed out that Bitget leads the market in ETH and SOL liquidity. From November 2023 to June 2025, Bitget’s cumulative derivatives trading volume reached $11.5 trillion. In 2025, the platform’s average monthly trading volume reached $750 billion, with nearly 90% coming from derivatives.
As of July 2, 2025, Coingecko data shows that Bitget’s contract and spot trading volumes rank third and second globally, respectively.
After a seven-year journey, Bitget has completed its leap from the industry’s edge to the global stage. But the real story is just beginning.
UEX (Universal Exchange) is Bitget’s declaration for the future. It is not a simple patchwork of functions, but a disruption: breaking the boundaries between centralized and decentralized, allowing users to seamlessly switch trading scenarios and freely control their assets on a single platform.
If the past seven years were Bitget’s “barbaric growth,” then UEX will be the starting point of its “new civilization.” It carries the ambition to reshape the exchange landscape and ignites the spark for the crypto industry to evolve to a higher stage.
Seven years is just the prologue; UEX is the true beginning. The story of Bitget is far from over.
