OKX Founder Star Xu noted that as the CEO of the digital assets firm and a builder at heart, they are pleased to reflect on a solid year of growth and progress.
Despite challenges, 2024 was a year of focus, innovation, and resilience, according to OKX CEO Star Xu.
They expanded and enhanced their products, made significant strides in bringing to market “a transparent and regulatory compliant onshore business, and added weight to their global executive bench.”
Most notably, Xu pointed out that 2024 marked a turning point for the industry, serving as crypto’s “comeback year” after a period of “heightened uncertainty.”
Xu added that through it all, their mission remained clear: “Forward decentralization and make crypto more accessible to the world.”
This year, they claim to have achieved milestones that speak to these objectives :”accelerating growth – a 122% year-over-year surge in app downloads, a 20x increase in DEX daily trading volume, and a 991% rise in OKX Wallets globally (as of December 5).”
According to Xu, these numbers aren’t just metrics- they’re “proof of the global shift toward crypto adoption and OKX’s role in leading the charge.”
This year, they prioritized making apps “easier to use and making crypto more interoperable when using OKX. We did this by first introducing a new default simple mode in our app.”
OKX’s CEO also mentioned that this new mode allows people who use their app to have “a simpler view of crypto prices, trends, and easily buy, sell, or transact through this new interface.”
Previously, this experience was more clunky and designed for “a typical trader” rather than a “casual investor.”
Secondly, they rolled out a wave of “new cross-chain support to more than 100 chains, which creates, in our view, the ultimate interoperability between chains accessible through our wallet and Web3 ecosystem.”
Thirdly, they upgraded their app design and “modernized the way they want you to experience the OKX app every day.”
Throughout this year, they claim to have “welcomed millions of new people onto our platform and introduced approximately 200 new features along with over 800 upgrades across our Centralized Exchange, Wallet, and decentralized services.”
According to a blog post by OKX, these advancements “underscore their commitment to pushing the boundaries of crypto accessibility and usability.”
In 2024, they claim to have made significant strides in expanding their global footprint, “launching seven onshore businesses across Brazil, Singapore, the UAE, Turkey, the Netherlands, Belgium, and Australia.”
In these key markets, they reportedly “established local teams with a focus on growth and enabled seamless fiat onramps, making it easier than ever for customers to access their products.”
OKX’s CEO also shared that they “secured four major licenses and extensions – in Singapore, the UAE, EEA, and Australia – demonstrating their commitment to building locally established businesses.”
Xu added that through this expansion, they see an increase in trust towards their platform “from people who are starting to use their apps and this is apparent in the substantial increase in Assets on Platform (AOP) across these onshore markets.”
As noted in the update, these achievements demonstrate their ability and commitment to continue to “bring OKX services to other regulated markets and working closely with regulators and policymakers.”
This year, they continued to bolster compliance operations with risk-based standards that “meet those of the biggest financial services companies.”
As noted by Xu, many people are still “skeptical of centralized exchanges or perhaps any centralized financial institutions.”
They pointed out that millions of people saw what “can happen when there is a bank run, whether at a digital asset exchange or a bank.”
In 2022, OKX said they committed to publishing a “monthly proof-of-reserves report so people on our platform could see the total amount of assets on our platform each month.”
Additionally, they decided to launch a “self-verification” tool so as a customer, you can verify that your funds are “backed 1:1 on their platform at any time.”
The firm’s CEO concluded:
“We’re already laying the groundwork, investing heavily in Web3, so OKX is the preferred gateway for accessing the dApps of tomorrow. And I’m proud to say that this vision is already becoming reality. 2025 isn’t just another year, it’s the next chapter in defining the future of crypto.”