On September 2, OKX President Hong published his latest blog, The Journey to Singapore and Our Future . The specific translation is as follows:
Today, we announced two major developments in Singapore. Both developments demonstrate our long-term commitment to building responsibly in the Lion City.
Firstly, following the approval-in-principle for the Large Payment Institution License from the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) in February , we are “delighted to have now received MAS approval for the MPI license and are honoured to have the opportunity to continue contributing to the local community in a secure, transparent and thoughtful manner. Singapore is a key market in our global strategy and obtaining the MPI license is another milestone in our long-term commitment to Singapore.
Secondly, we are very pleased to appoint Gracie Lin as our CEO for Singapore. Our belief and approach is to hire the best local leaders and empower them to help us better serve local clients. Gracie is an extraordinary leader with extensive relevant experience in public policy, investment management, capital markets and early-stage technology companies. We are fortunate to have her at the helm to drive market growth and investment.
We are working hard to optimize our product suite for Singaporean customers in accordance with local regulations. Buy/sell/switch transactions are now live, and the first product upgrade after obtaining the MPI license is seamless connection with local bank accounts, allowing Singaporean customers to easily deposit and withdraw funds. Stay tuned for further updates - the team is working hard.
Our long-term vision in Singapore is not only reflected in the product level, but also committed to promoting responsible innovation by working closely with regulators, partners, the wider community and customers, and becoming a key contributor to the development of the local digital asset industry. We will adapt our products to meet the needs of local customers, while actively developing infrastructure, talent and education to contribute to the growth of the industry.
Long-term vision
Our mission is to deliver responsible innovation to our customers. We achieve this globally through two components:
1. Local construction
Our focus over the past few years has been on building locally in countries with great potential for sustainable growth.
This includes hiring and empowering the best local leaders. Deepening our connections with customers, understanding and prioritizing local needs. We deliver product innovation locally and strive to be a constructive contributor to local communities.
We have long believed that the power of Crypto has always had - and always will - come from grassroots communities. If we dont get close to real crypto users, we will lose focus and relevance. For this reason, we have invested heavily in building strong local teams in key regions such as Europe, the Middle East, the Americas and Asia. We are proud of the quality of local leadership over the past few years.
Gracie’s appointment as CEO of Singapore is part of our commitment to deepening our global leadership in key markets and she will join a team of passionate OKX leaders in Europe , Australia , UAE , Bahamas , Turkiye , Brazil and Argentina . I feel very fortunate to be working with such a strong and diverse leadership team.
2. Build Responsibly
Another important part of our strategy is to build responsibly, a principle that guides our work. The reason for this is that we need to build trust with the public and provide our customers with a seamless transition between crypto and TradFi.
We are committed to investing the resources needed to innovate for the long-term benefit of our customers. As a result, our global local leadership has worked together over the past few years to identify business opportunities around the world in the increasingly regulated cryptocurrency environment.
Another important milestone was recently when we established the MiCA (Markets in Crypto Assets) centre in Malta , which will enable us to offer crypto asset services to hundreds of millions of EU customers.
Looking ahead
We have been in the crypto space for a decade and are proud of our achievements so far, but we will continue to move forward. In the long run, implementing localization and building responsibly is key to driving responsible innovation for our customers.
We have taken an important step by strengthening our presence in Singapore, and we look forward to Singapore continuing to be a key location for close collaboration with customers and partners, while driving responsible innovation and giving back to the community.
Looking ahead, we will continue to share more progress in Singapore and beyond in 2024 and beyond.
