Bitget's CEO Warns Pure Crypto Exchanges Face Structural Ceiling

Bitget's CEO Gracy Chen believes that the era of pure crypto exchanges is coming to an end. In an interview, she stated that centralized exchanges must expand into traditional assets and compliance-driven models to remain competitive.

Crypto exchanges have been growing rapidly, but Chen warned that the pace may moderate as ETFs and platforms like Robinhood absorb incremental demand. She noted that the liquidity model that centralized exchanges had is now evaporating due to institutions such as JP Morgan and Citi building around-the-clock dollar infrastructure.

Bitget has repositioned itself as a 'Universal Exchange' (UEX), offering crypto alongside U.S. equities and other global assets tradable via stablecoins. Chen emphasized that this transition is operational, not cosmetic, and involves positioning the whole company from talent acquisition to product building to compliance.

Chen acknowledged that pursuing compliance requires trade-offs, citing Bitget's exit from France and Germany and its step back from the U.S. in 2022 due to regulatory complexity. However, she stressed that the company chooses to be compliant, even if it is a 'hard choice.'