OKX Star's Year-End Letter to Global Users: Steady Progress Towards Financial Freedom

"Financial freedom" is often misunderstood. It does not mean the absence of rules, but rather the right to choose within the framework of existing rules—and for the system to remain reliable and effective when truly tested.

This has been our unwavering focus throughout 2025.

First, I would like to extend my sincere gratitude to our global customers, partners, and regulatory bodies. A safe and healthy crypto ecosystem is never built by a single entity alone. Only when responsibility and collaboration are seen as integral parts of an open system, rather than constraints hindering its operation, can such a system truly thrive sustainably.

In 2025, OKX achieved growth with substance, and in doing so, we have consistently raised the industry's core standards for reliability, transparency, security, and accessibility. On our journey forward, the following areas are of paramount importance to me and the team:

Reliability: The First Prerequisite for "Financial Freedom"

In 2025, the market's repeated volatility largely exposed the failures of certain systems and control mechanisms. Severe price swings, cascading large-scale liquidations, and concentrated derivatives expiries posed significant challenges to global trading infrastructure.

Late August: A combination of concentrated derivatives expiries and high market volatility led to service disruptions, order delays, and brief outages at several major platforms.

October: A rapid market sell-off triggered over $19 billion in liquidations within 24 hours (data referenced from CoinGlass and The Block).

I am proud to announce that during both of these market events, OKX operated stably throughout. Trading, deposits, withdrawals, and risk control systems experienced no interruptions. On October 11th, our system's processing capacity reached a historic peak—handling a record 1.72 million transactions per second while maintaining an order latency of just 20 microseconds.

This reliability is the foundation OKX has built upon since its inception. The infrastructure we have constructed continues to prove its leading position within the industry. This is not a slogan, but a result forged over years, enduring cycles, and validated by countless extreme market conditions.

Security, Market Integrity, and User Protection

We have continued to increase our investment in system security, anti-fraud measures, and market surveillance. This includes: proactively combating large-scale scam activities (such as "pig butchering" scams); maintaining long-term cooperation with law enforcement agencies in multiple regions; and decisively taking measures like delisting and restricting privileges against actions that harm user interests.

These efforts have also gained recognition within the industry. For instance, blockchain investigator ZachXBT and the renowned crypto analytics firm Chainalysis have both mentioned the results of our collaboration on multiple occasions. Chainalysis CEO Jonathan Levin, while testifying before the U.S. Senate Banking Committee in August, specifically highlighted the collaborative experience between OKX, Chainalysis, Tether, and law enforcement in combating scams.

An open market can only remain truly open when it actively eradicates its "malignancies."

Furthermore, hacker attacks within the industry have persisted. This year, two more major platforms were attacked, exposing billions of dollars in user assets to risk. Precisely because of this, for many years, my team and I have adhered to one principle: security first. We do not rely on third-party technology, insisting instead on native, in-house development. This alone significantly reduces the risk of being attacked.

Simultaneously, we continue to invest in user education. Content like "The Mild Mild West" raises public awareness, helping more people understand that in financial markets, governance, rules, and enforcement are not obstacles to innovation but the foundation for safeguarding long-term trust.

Asset Transparency: Always Verifiable, 100% Reserves

Throughout 2025, we consistently maintained a 3%–5% surplus in Assets Under Management (AUM), ensuring user assets are fully backed at all times.

We have never ceased publishing our monthly Proof of Reserves (PoR) reports:

• Beginning of the year: Major asset holdings exceeded $24 billion
• End of the year: This figure grew to over $31.5 billion
• Reserve Ratios: Reserve ratios for BTC, ETH, USDT, and USDC consistently remained above 100%

These reports are independently reviewed by third-party security and audit firms like Hacken and are open for public verification through a Merkle Tree proof mechanism.

Our Proof of Reserves mechanism is regarded by multiple industry analysts and media outlets as one of the most stable and transparent practices in the industry.

Transparency should not be built on slogans, but presented through repeatable, verifiable facts.

Self-Custody: An Accessible Right

We have continued to expand our self-custody capabilities, introducing new solutions around our wallet products, including Passkey authentication.

This not only significantly reduces reliance on traditional passwords and single points of failure but also enables a broader user base to securely and conveniently control their own assets.

A truly open financial system must allow users to choose their own asset custody method: some prefer regulated platforms, others opt for institutional-grade custody, and some insist on full self-custody.

Freedom only truly exists when these choices are real and practically usable.

Institutional Trust and Public Recognition

We have deepened our cooperation with global financial institutions such as Standard Chartered and DBS Bank. Our progress in custody arrangements and fiat integration has garnered widespread attention from mainstream media like Bloomberg and CoinDesk.

These collaborations reflect market confidence in OKX—whether in terms of governance structure, segregated asset custody, or risk management capabilities.

Without trust from both users and institutions, an open financial system cannot truly scale. These partnerships are precisely building the crucial bridge between the two.

Product-Driven Choice: Simplifying Complexity

In 2025, we launched several products aimed at expanding access and reducing complexity. These include:

• New Interface Design: Significantly improved usability and lowered the barrier to entry.
• OKX Pay: Focused on real-world applications and payments, rather than pure speculation.
• CeDeFi Innovations: Solutions combining on-chain access with centralized risk control, among the first to support trading on Solana and Base.
• Compliance Footprint Expansion: Deepening presence in the US and Europe, and expanding derivatives business in regulated regions like the UAE and Australia.

In Brazil, the launch of OKX Pay made us the most downloaded crypto application locally in December.

The Vision Behind Scale

Our partnerships with the McLaren F1 Team and Manchester City Football Club continue to expand OKX's global influence. Associated with the teams winning two major championships, these collaborations brought billions of brand impressions, introducing us to more people.

As we entered new regulated markets in 2025, OKX Exchange's global trading volume grew by 16%, DEX volume surged by approximately 262%, and daily active wallet numbers increased by over 100% year-on-year.

By year-end, our global user base surpassed 120 million. While this milestone has been widely reported, we view it more as a responsibility than an endpoint.

Only "scale" supported by systems, risk controls, and a long-term vision is meaningful.

What Freedom Looks Like

We do not frequently talk about "freedom" because it is easy to claim but difficult to achieve. In practice, freedom manifests as:

• A system that remains stable under extreme pressure;
• Assets that are verifiable, not merely promised;
• A market that proactively removes abusive behavior rather than tolerating it;
• Self-custody solutions that are truly usable for real users;
• An open network connected to the global financial system, not self-isolated.

Everything we built in 2025—from system stability and reserve transparency to wallets, CeDeFi, and regulatory compliance—aims to expand financial access without sacrificing trust.

This is my commitment to every customer and to the team building this future together. Let us step into 2026 with strength and a sense of responsibility.