The Journey to Singapore and Our Future

A message from OKX President Hong Fang

What's New

Today, we announced two major developments in Singapore. Both developments showcase our continued commitment to building responsibly in the Lion City. First, following in-principle approval for a Major Payment Institution (MPI) license from the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) in February, we're pleased to have now received approval for an MPI license from the MAS. We feel privileged to have the opportunity to continue to contribute to the local community in a secure, transparent and thoughtful way. The country is a key market in our global strategy, and receiving an MPI license marks another milestone for us in our long-term commitment to Singapore.

Second, we're also very excited to appoint Gracie Lin as our Singapore CEO. It's our belief and practice to hire the best local leaders and empower them. Having the right leadership on the ground keeps us accountable, accessible and relevant to our local customers. Gracie is an extraordinary leader with broad and relevant experience in public policy, investment management, capital markets and tech startups. We're fortunate to have her at the helm, driving our growth and investment in the market.

In tandem with these milestones, we're working hard to enhance our product suite for our Singapore customers in line with local regulations. Our buy/sell/convert trading is live. The first product upgrade expected after our MPI license is seamless connectivity to local bank accounts, enabling Singapore customers to easily deposit and withdraw funds. Please stay tuned for further updates - our team is hard at work.

Our long-term ambitions in Singapore go beyond products. The goal is to be a key contributor to the development of the local digital asset industry by working closely with regulators, partners, the broader community and customers to drive responsible innovation. This means tailoring our offerings to meet local needs while actively developing infrastructure, talent and knowledge to support the sector's growth.

The Bigger Picture

Our mission at OKX is to empower our customers with responsible innovations. There are two components to delivering this globally:

1. Build locally

Over the past few years, we've been focused on building locally in countries where we see great potential for sustainable growth.

What does it entail? We hire and empower best-in-class local leaders. We connect with customers to understand and prioritize local needs. We deliver product innovations locally, and strive to be a constructive contributor to the local community.

We've long believed that the power of crypto always has - and always will - come from the grassroots community. If we aren't close to real crypto users, we'll lose our focus and relevance. For this reason, we've invested considerably in building strong local teams in key regions such as Europe, the Middle East, the Americas and Asia. We're proud of the quality of the local leadership we've onboarded in the last few years.

The addition of Gracie as our Singapore CEO is part of our commitment to deepening our global leadership bench in key markets, and she will join passionate OKX leaders in Europe, Australia, UAE, Bahamas, Türkiye, Brazil and Argentina. I feel very fortunate to work with such a strong and diverse leadership team.

2. Build Responsibly

Another important part of our strategy is to build responsibly. This principle guides our execution as we build trust with the mass audience and offers seamless transition between crypto and TradFi to customers.

We're committed to investing resources needed for innovation to benefit our customers in the long-run. As a result, our global and local leadership has worked together over the last few years to identify business opportunities around the world in an increasingly regulated crypto landscape.

Another key recent milestone in building responsibly was the establishment of our MiCA (Markets in Crypto-Assets) Hub in Malta, which will eventually allow us to offer crypto-asset services to hundreds of millions of EU customers.

Looking Ahead

We've marked almost a decade in our journey in crypto. We're proud of where we are, and we're motivated to continue our journey. Executing the strategy of building locally and responsibly is key to driving responsible innovation for our customers in the long run.

By enhancing our presence in Singapore, we're taking an important step forward in our journey. We hope Singapore will continue to be a key location where we work closely with our customers and partners to responsibly innovate, and make a positive contribution to the community.As we continue to bring our vision to life, we look forward to sharing more updates about Singapore and other regions in 2024 and beyond.