Interview: Tong, PANews

整理：Yuliya，PANews

In the cryptocurrency industry, founders with a technical background often stand out due to their deep professional expertise and profound understanding of the industry. Just like OKX founder Xu Mingxing and Binance founder Zhao Changpeng, Gate.io founder Han Lin is also a typical representative in this field. Transitioning from academic research to crypto entrepreneurship, Han Lin not only personally wrote the early core code for Gate.io but also led the exchange from a niche platform to one of the world's leading cryptocurrency trading platforms. Recently, during the Hong Kong Consensus Conference, Han Lin accepted an exclusive interview with PANews, sharing his journey from behind the scenes to the forefront, as well as his deep insights into the future development of the industry.

Han Lin's entrepreneurial story began in 2013 when he, having obtained a postdoctoral degree in optoelectronics in Canada, accidentally came across Bitcoin, an emerging asset. With his technical background, he quickly understood Bitcoin's potential. In his practical purchases, he found a lack of safe and transparent trading platforms in the market, which led him to decisively establish Gate.io. From the initial coding to the current management and strategic planning, Han Lin's role has transformed from technical developer to industry leader. Although he admits he is not particularly good at external communication, he has frequently appeared at various events and interviews in recent years to share his insights with people inside and outside the industry.

In the interview, Han Lin reviewed the development history of Gate.io and revealed the platform's latest progress in user growth, product innovation, and global expansion. He specifically mentioned that the number of Gate.io users grew from 13 million at the beginning of last year to over 20 million by the end of the year, with a growth rate exceeding 50%. Behind this achievement is Gate.io's keen sense for new projects and continuous optimization of user experience. Whether it was early Litecoin, Dogecoin, or more recent Meme coins and AI projects, Gate.io has always been at the forefront of industry dynamics, providing a diverse range of assets.

Han Lin also shared his views on future industry trends. He believes that the blockchain industry has entered a relatively stable phase, and while it is difficult to see the extreme fluctuations of the past, the overall penetration rate of the industry continues to rise. He particularly noted that Bitcoin, as a deflationary asset, has security and scarcity that make it an ideal reserve asset. If more institutions and countries incorporate Bitcoin into their reserve asset systems, the market's growth potential will be further unleashed. Additionally, Han Lin emphasized the long-term trend of on-chain transactions and revealed that Gate.io began laying out on-chain wallets and decentralized exchanges (DEX) as early as 2018 to respond to this trend.

When discussing industry competition, Han Lin stated that Gate.io's core competitiveness lies in its deep understanding of user needs and continuous innovation. For example, with the "100% Reserve Proof," Gate.io always prioritizes the safety of user funds and asset value. Furthermore, Gate.io has enhanced its brand awareness and expanded its influence through sponsorships of international teams like Inter Milan and the F1 Red Bull Racing team.

Here is the content of the exclusive interview:

From Behind the Scenes to the Forefront, from Academia to Entrepreneurship

PANews: You used to rarely accept interviews; why have you been frequently appearing at various events and interviews in recent years? What is currently taking up most of your energy at work?

Han Lin: Because I primarily come from a technical background, I am not particularly good at external communication. In the past two years, the industry has developed very rapidly, and I hope to communicate more and share my thoughts with everyone. So, I have participated more in various activities over the past two years, discussing viewpoints with people inside and outside the industry.

PANews: There have been rumors in the industry that you stayed home writing code; is this a rumor or a fact?

Han Lin: Many of the early codes for Gate.io were personally written by me, including the website, API, and other foundational development work. However, that was a long time ago. Gate.io has been established for 12 years, and as the team has grown, the number of technical personnel has increased, so my focus has gradually shifted to management and strategic aspects. Currently, I mainly handle daily management, formulate industry development directions, and ensure the execution quality of products and technology.

PANews: What work did you do before founding Gate.io? Was this your first entrepreneurial venture?

Han Lin: This is my first entrepreneurial venture. Previously, I was engaged in research in the field of optoelectronics. In 2007, I went to Canada to pursue a PhD, and after graduation, I began my entrepreneurial journey. Initially, I was involved in optoelectronic software development, and later I came across Bitcoin and virtual currencies, gradually entering this industry. Gate.io officially launched in April 2013.

PANews: How did you come across Bitcoin?

Han Lin: In 2012, while developing optoelectronic software, I encountered a shortage of graphics cards. Through investigation, I found that graphics cards were widely used for Bitcoin mining. So, I began to pay attention to Bitcoin, delving into its white paper, and realized that this was a highly innovative field. With my technical background, I was able to quickly understand Bitcoin's technology and potential, and I became very interested.

When Bitcoin first emerged, there weren't many trading platforms in the market. At that time, I bought 100 Bitcoins on a forum, but the person only gave me 1 BTC, leaving 99 BTC unreturned. This made me realize that the industry needed a safer and more transparent trading platform. Thus, I decided to establish Gate.io to provide users with more reliable trading services.

Innovation and Growth: Gate.io's Core Competitiveness

PANews: Gate.io has always been at the forefront of launching new projects, and recently it has quickly launched many Meme and AI projects. Can you share the situation regarding new users and revenue?

Han Lin: Discovering quality projects has always been a tradition for Gate.io. Since its establishment in 2013, we have launched many cryptocurrencies, such as Litecoin and Dogecoin. The platform's user growth has been very rapid, increasing from 13 million users at the beginning of last year to over 20 million by the end of the year, with a growth rate exceeding 50%. Revenue has also significantly increased.

PANews: The MEME craze has led many trading users to migrate on-chain; is on-chain a long-term trend? What technical and strategic preparations has Gate.io made?

Han Lin: On-chain trading is undoubtedly a long-term trend. Compared to centralized exchanges, the advantage of on-chain is that users can manage their assets independently, and the trading speed is faster, especially for experienced users who have more opportunities to make money on-chain.

In the early days, the on-chain infrastructure was poor, with high GAS fees, few suitable wallets, and inadequate trading platforms. However, in the past two years, the construction of on-chain infrastructure has progressed rapidly, and the user experience of DEX has gradually approached that of CEX, attracting more users to migrate on-chain.

I have also tried trading on-chain myself. Gate.io began laying out on-chain wallets and decentralized exchanges (DEX) as early as 2018, launching multi-currency wallets that support the storage and trading of various crypto assets. By the time of the DeFi Summer in 2020, we actively developed a comprehensive platform that provides various services, including trading, wallets, and asset management.

Initially, my thinking was more centralized, believing that trading was the main entry point. However, I later realized that in Web3, wallets are the primary entry point. Storing assets in wallets, and then conducting trading, conversions, and staking on that basis. So, I began to shift my thinking towards developing a Web3 wallet.

We have been continuously developing the Gate Chain public chain. We started conceptualizing it in 2018 and launched the GT token in 2019. At that time, many projects simply cloned existing projects like Ethereum or Cosmos to launch new public chains, but we aimed to innovate and create a chain focused on asset security, investing a lot of effort into it. An important innovation of Gate Chain is that in the event of asset theft, users have the opportunity to recover lost assets. We designed a transfer lock period feature for the public chain, during which users can apply to recover stolen assets.

Later, as market interest gradually shifted towards EVM (Ethereum Virtual Machine), we upgraded Gate Chain to be EVM-compatible. After that, our focus shifted to how to further enhance the performance of the public chain to meet larger-scale demands and support more application scenarios.

PANews: Gate.io places great importance on user fund security. What was the motivation behind launching the proof of secure fund reserves in 2020?

Han Lin: We were one of the first trading platforms to launch the "100% Reserve Proof." At that time, many users were skeptical about the security of exchange funds, worried that exchanges would misappropriate user assets. To alleviate user concerns, we borrowed the Merkle tree algorithm from the Bitcoin blockchain to publicly prove that the user assets held by the platform were fully matched.

Initially, this technology did not have zero-knowledge proof support, so we invited an independent auditing firm from the United States to verify it. Although we called on other platforms to join this initiative, it wasn't until after the FTX incident in 2022 that more platforms began to pay attention to fund reserve proofs.

PANews: What products on Gate.io are the most popular among users?

Han Lin: In addition to wallets, spot/contract trading, and wealth management products, social features are also popular among users, such as live streaming, dynamics, and chat rooms, where users can communicate and interact with each other on the platform. For most users, asset trading and wealth management products remain the most commonly used features.

Global Layout and Regulatory Challenges

PANews: Where are Gate.io's users primarily located?

Han Lin: Gate.io is a global platform that has been serving users worldwide since its establishment in 2013. In the early days, because I was mainly overseas, a large number of users were also overseas. Later, the number of users from Chinese-speaking regions gradually increased, and in the past two years, we have begun to fully promote globalization, providing multilingual services. Additionally, our group's related companies have applied for licenses and made compliance layouts in multiple countries and regions worldwide, including Asia, America, Europe, and the Middle East. At the end of last year, our group acquired a company holding a Japanese license (Coin Master Co., Ltd.) and plans to launch a local compliant trading platform this year according to local regulatory requirements.

PANews: What is your view on Hong Kong's policies?

Han Lin: Hong Kong is very supportive of Web3 overall. The Hong Kong government has shown a very proactive stance in its policies, and communication with Hong Kong legislators indicates that they hope to attract more Web3 companies to settle in Hong Kong. However, from the perspective of asset trading, Hong Kong's policies are relatively conservative, and the trading categories of existing licensed exchanges are limited, which may make some users feel that there are not enough choices. Our group applied for a custody license (TCSP) two or three years ago, and we are also very interested in Hong Kong's OTC license in the future.

PANews: Looking back at the development of Gate.io, what are some unforgettable moments?

Han Lin: Over the past 12 years of Gate.io's development, we have faced many challenges while also witnessing the rapid growth of the industry.

• The early infrastructure was severely lacking, for example, commercial-grade wallet systems were not yet widespread, and exchanges had to develop related technologies on their own. During this stage, security incidents were frequent, with hacker attacks and asset losses occurring from time to time.
• On the other hand, there were changes in regulation. In the early days, the regulatory attitude towards the industry was one of observation or indifference. Later, as the industry developed, regulations began to tighten, and some countries and regions adopted blocking policies towards virtual currencies. In recent years, more and more countries have started to require licensing or related registrations, promoting the standardized development of the industry. These changes give us hope for the industry's healthy development.

PANews: In the face of increasingly fierce competition among exchanges, what is your trump card?

Han Lin: Gate.io previously focused a lot of energy on infrastructure and products, concentrating on user needs and providing the functions and assets that users required. However, as market competition intensified, the lack of brand awareness became one of the factors limiting new user growth. To address this, Gate.io began to increase brand promotion efforts last year, because although Gate.io implemented the "100% Reserve Proof" as early as 2020, many people have yet to realize its importance. To enhance brand influence, Gate.io has further expanded its brand awareness through sponsorships of teams like Inter Milan and the F1 Red Bull Racing team.

Additionally, Gate.io has also made large-scale optimizations in product experience. In the early stages, the platform focused on improving functions and assets, but now, as functions have gradually become complete, users are more concerned about whether the user experience is smooth. Based on this, the platform has invested significant resources to optimize user experience, striving to create a smooth and efficient trading environment.

PANews: Does Gate.io have any plans regarding mergers and acquisitions or introducing shareholders?

Han Lin: The main purpose of mergers and acquisitions is strategic considerations, such as obtaining licenses. Although Gate Group started early in terms of license layout, the application cycle for licenses is relatively long (usually taking 1 to 4 years), so acquiring or investing in related licensed entities is also a good option.

As for introducing strategic shareholders, although this is an important means for many companies in the early stages of development, Gate.io currently has no such need, and the current equity structure remains independent.

Industry Cycles and Future Trends

PANews: The industry has had a pattern of "four-year cycles" in the past, but this round seems different. Has the four-year cycle theory failed?

Han Lin: I believe there is no so-called fixed cycle. There was indeed a phenomenon of four-year cycles in the early days, but that was mainly because virtual currencies, especially Bitcoin, were still a very niche asset class at that time. Back then, market fluctuations were mainly influenced by internal events, such as Bitcoin halving. Halving was a significant event in the industry at that time, attracting a lot of attention and causing market fluctuations, which led people to feel that there was a fixed cyclical pattern.

But the situation is now completely different. Bitcoin's market capitalization is now close to $2 trillion, and the total market capitalization of the entire crypto market is also approaching $4 trillion, making it a very large asset class, even surpassing the market capitalization of most leading publicly listed companies. Bitcoin's market cap is now higher than silver but lower than gold. This scale tightly connects the crypto market with global economic activities; for example, the daily fluctuations we see are highly correlated with the performance of the US stock market, which has a significant impact on the crypto market. Therefore, it is now difficult to measure market fluctuations using a fixed four-year cycle.

I believe market fluctuations depend more on two factors:

First, the external environment, which refers to the global macroeconomic situation. For example, the performance of the US stock market and fluctuations in the global economy can directly impact the crypto market.

Second, internal innovation, which refers to whether new concepts or technologies emerge within the industry. In the past, we saw that the rise of Ethereum in 2017 brought about the ICO boom, attracting a large number of new projects and funds into the market;

• The explosion of DeFi in 2020 triggered another wave;
• Later, new concepts like NFTs and GameFi also drove market growth;
• In recent years, new concepts like Meme coins and BRC-20 have sparked market discussions and participation.

PANews: It seems that there haven't been many new concepts emerging in the past two years, and people may be optimistic about AI next. What do you think?

Han Lin: Although there have not been significant innovative breakthroughs in the blockchain industry in the past two years, the development of the industry has not stagnated.

• Maturity of infrastructure: In the early stages, infrastructure such as wallets and trading platforms was not well developed; for example, users needed to download official wallets to operate. Now, multi-currency wallets have become very mature, greatly enhancing user experience.
• Evolution of DeFi platforms: DeFi platforms have evolved from initially offering single functions (like Swap trading) to becoming comprehensive platforms with rich functionalities. For example, the launch of Ethereum's L2 network not only reduced transaction costs but also improved network performance, alleviating congestion issues. Emerging public chains like Solana have further optimized infrastructure with higher performance and lower costs.
• Enhanced "outreach" capability of cryptocurrencies: Today, Bitcoin has become an important asset class, with its global penetration rate continuously increasing. For instance, in regions like Hong Kong, Singapore, and Dubai, the penetration rate of cryptocurrencies has exceeded 20%, while the global average penetration rate has reached 10%.
• The driving role of Meme coins: The emergence of Meme coins has lowered the entry barrier for the industry, attracting a large number of external users. Compared to the early stages, which required extensive user education, the understanding threshold for the general public regarding cryptocurrencies has significantly decreased, further promoting the industry's popularization and development.
• Future optimization directions: For high-frequency trading needs, Gas fees remain a key area that requires continuous optimization, and the industry still has great potential for reducing costs and improving efficiency.

PANews: How do you view the upcoming market trends? Is the bull market still on?

Han Lin: From the current perspective, the blockchain industry has entered a relatively stable phase, and it is difficult to see the extreme fluctuations of the past again. The overall penetration rate of the industry continues to rise. For example, some states in the US have begun legislating to treat Bitcoin as a reserve asset, which may prompt other countries and regions to follow suit.

As a deflationary asset, Bitcoin's security and scarcity make it an ideal reserve asset. If more institutions and countries incorporate Bitcoin into their reserve asset systems, the market's growth potential will be further unleashed.

The innovation capability and capital flow efficiency of the blockchain industry remain at a high level, leading to the continuous emergence of new projects and tracks. In addition to Meme coins, many emerging tracks and concepts are also developing rapidly. Gate Ventures continues to pay attention to these changes and actively seeks out promising projects.

PANews: With the launch of Bitcoin ETFs, will the expected effects be impacted due to funds not being able to directly enter the crypto market?

Han Lin: Although there is a certain degree of separation between traditional assets and virtual assets, the flow mechanisms between the two have been significantly simplified. For example, through ETFs, traditional financial users can indirectly invest in virtual assets, while the asset allocation behind the ETF still needs to flow into Bitcoin or other crypto assets. In the long run, these funds will ultimately be transmitted to the crypto market.

Moreover, the channels for ordinary users to enter the crypto market are also increasing, such as credit card purchases and bank transfers. These convenient measures lower the entry barriers for traditional financial users into the crypto market, bringing more funding possibilities to the industry. The launch of ETFs undoubtedly has positive significance for the industry's development.

PANews: What advice do you have for users in the crypto field?

Han Lin:

• For external users, I suggest first understanding the blockchain industry. Even if you do not directly invest in crypto assets, participating in blockchain-related work or projects can deepen your understanding of the industry. Blockchain is a field full of opportunities, and the earlier you participate, the more advantages you will have.
• For internal users, especially Gate.io users, I recommend maintaining rational investment and focusing on risk control. We will soon launch some new types of assets, which may be a good choice for experienced users. However, novice users should adopt a more conservative strategy to avoid blindly following trends.

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