Original | Odaily Planet Daily (@OdailyChina)
Today, an article titled “All trading platforms should immediately stop promoting contract experience funds to college students” sparked heated discussions in the market.
The article detailed how some CEXs are using contract experience funds to attract college students. Opinions on this event vary; some believe this move is tantamount to “luring people into a casino,” while others think it is merely a business practice without any issues. Although the article did not specifically name any platforms, many users speculated, and some CEX spokespersons came forward to clarify and respond.
Odaily Planet Daily will outline the background and developments of this event for readers' reference.
Cause of the Event: An Exposed Industry User Acquisition Chaos
The event began with a tweet.
On April 13, Bruce Xu, co-founder of the Ethereum Chinese community ETHPanda and LXDAO, posted on X platform exposing that: “I confirmed a fact while talking to students yesterday: some CEXs offer contract experience funds to students, which cannot be withdrawn. If you make a profit, it’s yours, and if you share a screenshot of your profits exceeding a certain multiple on social media, you can receive additional rewards. Is this how we cultivate gamblers from college students? It’s disgusting. 🤮 So lacking in bottom line.”
Details of Bruce Xu's tweet
Subsequently, the article “All trading platforms should immediately stop promoting contract experience funds to college students” emerged, aiming to call on major CEXs to pay attention to their methods during user acquisition and not use high-leverage contracts, which are highly risky, as “bait” to induce college students into crypto trading, to avoid personal financial losses and other issues.
CEX Responses: One Side Admits Mistakes; One Seeks Evidence
After the incident, some community users targeted two major platforms: Bitget and Bybit.
A spokesperson from Bitget was the first to respond, with Chinese head Xie Jiayin stating: “In response to the media article mentioning the initiative for trading platforms to stop promoting contract experience funds to college students, and Bitget's campus ambassador program launched in February, Bitget provides the following explanation:
- Regarding the campus ambassador program: The Bitget campus ambassador project aims to promote blockchain knowledge and provide internship opportunities, and does not encourage contract trading or distribute contract experience funds. This program was launched on February 18, and due to user misunderstandings linking it to contract rebates, Bitget quickly took it offline globally on February 19, with all applications during that period not being approved.
- Upholding principles, refusing inducement: Bitget has never distributed contract experience funds to students in any form, which is Bitget's bottom line. We welcome social supervision; if such behavior is discovered, please take screenshots and report it. Bitget will handle it seriously and reward valid reporters with up to 1000 USDT.
- University cooperation is limited to popular science and employment: Bitget's cooperation with universities focuses on Web3 popular science, internships, and employment guidance, such as the 2025 campus recruitment (28 people hired), Zhejiang University hackathon, and Hong Kong University of Science and Technology Web3 sharing session, etc.
Bitget always supports industry self-discipline and actively responds to initiatives. Based on this, Bitget will launch a “Green Campus Program” to help college students understand Web3 and explore the future in a healthier way. We welcome everyone’s supervision and suggestions.”
A student who participated in Bitget's promotional activities at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology also appeared in the comments section stating: “I declare that there was absolutely no form of ‘contract experience fund’ distribution in this activity; this is purely a rumor for Bitget.” Regarding the circulated announcement of the “campus ambassador program,” Xie Jiayin added: “The relevant announcement was taken down quickly after being online for only 16 hours.”
Previous announcement content from Bitget
In contrast to Bitget, Bybit's response was more intense. Bybit CEO Ben Zhou directly confronted in the KOL Zishi's comment section, stating that claims about “promoting contract trading in schools,” “legal complaints against OKX wallets,” and “charging listing fees” lack evidence and are baseless rumors. He emphasized: “The crypto space is chaotic because of rumors and lack of evidence.”
Subsequently, someone in the comments section posted Bybit's previous campus ambassador recruitment announcement released on September 25, 2024, as a challenge to Ben Zhou's mention of “Bybit promoting contract trading in schools.”
Partial information from Bybit's campus ambassador recruitment announcement
Event Follow-up: Majority Oppose, Minority Thinks It’s Debatable
As the controversy continues to spread, more and more people have joined the discussion on whether exchanges should use contracts to attract college students.
Most crypto KOLs and market users believe this move is essentially gambling disguised as “financial activities” through derivatives. Crypto KOL Crypto Brave, former Chain News founder and current Bodl founder Liu Feng, and Slow Mist founder Yu Xian have all expressed opposition and criticism towards this behavior. This is currently the mainstream view in the market.
Additionally, some have voiced differing opinions.
Crypto KOL Kay Capital posted: “The media's call for derivatives not to harm college students results in just a PR, clarifying the campus ambassador position, which does not prevent it from continuing to happen.” He added: “It’s just that the market has no incremental growth, and these companies are reverting to old methods of user acquisition. The righteous way is to engage in delta-neutral strategies like Luhuihui and promote neutral methods, rather than stopping drug dealers from dealing drugs. The essence of drugs is that 125x perpetual contracts are fundamentally a very professional product that should not be offered to retail investors.”
ChainFeeds co-founder Pan Zhixiong shared the above post and voiced: “I just discovered that Shanghai TV's Five-Star Sports Channel is actually teaching how to participate in the lottery, how experts predict, how to calculate odds, and other educational content.” It is evident that the two bloggers lean towards the view of “platform neutrality, tools are neither right nor wrong, individuals are responsible for themselves.”
Crypto KOL Huajiao also commented: “Some paths must be walked; if college students don’t gamble on contracts, they will play digital collections, gamble on CS:GO skins, engage in online gambling, play multi-color lottery, and participate in games like the Beijing Racing, Shishi, and Fencai.” This directly exposes the harsh reality.
The current controversy has come to a pause, and whether major CEXs can implement corresponding control mechanisms regarding “college student contract trading” remains to be seen.
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