Bitget Chief Legal Officer Hon Ng said in the exchange’s eighth anniversary open letter that the company’s expansion has changed its scale, product scope and market reach, but not the weight of its responsibilities.
In the letter, Ng said Bitget started eight years ago as a crypto derivatives trading platform and has since grown to serve more than 125 million users. Under its Universal Exchange, or UEX, vision, the platform has also expanded into a wider set of global asset classes, including U.S. stocks, gold and foreign exchange.
Ng wrote that Bitget’s evolution is not only about size. The platform has moved from a focus on crypto trading to a broader model that connects more users, more assets and more trading scenarios. As users gain more choices and the company enters more markets, he said, Bitget must answer that growth with stronger transparency, a more complete security system and compliance capabilities that can support long-term operations across different markets.
Proof of reserves expanded from 4 assets to 19
Ng said that when users entrust assets to a platform, the platform has a duty to make that custody traceable and verifiable. Bitget launched its Proof of Reserves system in December 2022 and has published reserve data every month since then, according to the letter. The company said it maintains at least a 1:1 reserve for user assets and uses a Merkle Tree verification mechanism so users can independently check whether their assets are included in platform reserves.
As of September 2026, Bitget said it had released 46 consecutive Proof of Reserves reports. The letter said the platform’s overall reserve ratio stood at 135%, while the average reserve ratio has remained above 120%.
At the time of its eighth anniversary, Bitget also expanded the scope of its Proof of Reserves coverage from the original four assets to 19 assets, including XAUT, which the letter described as an on-chain traditional finance asset.
Ng said that as the range of tradable assets grows, the platform’s responsibilities should extend with it. In his account, wherever the asset boundary moves, transparency and verification should follow.
Protection Fund and platform-wide security controls
The letter said user protection goes beyond reserves and also covers account security, market order and the management and controls behind each platform mechanism. Bitget established its Protection Fund in 2022 with an initial size of $300 million to provide additional financial protection for users in extreme situations.
According to the letter, the fund’s average valuation was about $382 million in August 2026. Ng said security is not a single-point defense but a full-process system that starts with identifying risk at the source and reinforcing safeguards across operational details.
He described Bitget’s security setup as a platform-wide framework covering infrastructure stability, account login and device management, trading activity and asset withdrawals. Users can enable two-factor authentication, or 2FA, FIDO2 and WebAuthn passkeys, anti-phishing codes and device controls. On the platform side, Bitget said it uses withdrawal protection, trade monitoring, abnormal behavior detection and anti-fraud systems to support each user action in the background.
Market order and token responsibility framework
Ng also said Bitget introduced its Market Order and Token Responsibility Framework earlier this year. The framework is meant to strengthen ongoing oversight of listed assets, project teams and market makers through expanded monitoring and response mechanisms.
According to the letter, Bitget wants to identify abnormal wallet behavior, market manipulation, insufficient liquidity and other suspicious trading activity at an earlier stage, while also clarifying the responsibilities of project teams and market makers in the market. If potential violations are found, the platform said it may take measures based on the circumstances, including stronger risk alerts, account function restrictions, account freezes, trading suspensions or, where appropriate, delisting related assets.
Ng said maintaining market order is also part of maintaining user confidence in the market.
Compliance footprint spans multiple jurisdictions
On compliance, the letter said Bitget’s expansion into more markets has brought it into contact with a wider and more complex set of regulatory environments. Different jurisdictions have their own regulatory frameworks, asset classifications and risk requirements. Entering a new market, Ng wrote, means understanding local rules again and building compliance capabilities that match the relevant framework.
Bitget said its regulatory footprint now covers multiple jurisdictions, including Argentina, Australia, El Salvador, Georgia through the Tbilisi Free Zone, Mauritius, Mexico, New Zealand, South Africa, Switzerland and the United Kingdom. The company said it has obtained the relevant registrations, licenses or regulatory approvals in those places.
The letter added that Bitget continues to refine its know-your-customer, or KYC, and know-your-business, or KYB, processes, anti-money laundering, or AML, and counter-terrorist financing, or CFT, controls, sanctions screening and transaction monitoring, while staying in communication with regulators.
UEX security standards for a broader asset mix
Ng said the development of UEX has added another layer to that responsibility. As crypto assets, tokenized stocks, commodities and other assets move into a unified trading environment, the platform has to deal with different market structures, trading mechanisms and risk profiles at the same time. It also has to make security capabilities that were once spread across separate asset classes and business lines work together on one platform.
For that reason, Bitget said it has continued to refine its UEX Security Standards. The areas listed in the letter include verifiable solvency, multi-asset risk isolation, data and privacy protection, dynamic monitoring, and application and infrastructure defense.
Anniversary letter ties growth to responsibility
In the closing section of the letter, Ng said eight years in the industry have made one point clearer: no standard stays sufficient forever. Transparency has to keep pace with platform development, security has to keep pace with changing risks, and compliance has to keep pace with shifts in markets and regulation.
He wrote that growth and responsibility have never been separate matters. Each step forward by the platform gives users more choices, but it also expands the range of what Bitget must protect, verify and take responsibility for. Eight years ago, users began placing their trust in Bitget. Today, users encounter a broader set of assets, more choices and wider trading scenarios on the platform, and the company’s responsibilities are heavier than they were at the start.
Ng said the platform can continue to grow, markets can continue to expand and products can continue to evolve, but the responsibility to protect user assets cannot change. Nor can the commitment to security and compliance, or the transparency that allows users to see, understand and verify how the platform operates.
He added that Bitget’s eighth anniversary theme is "Trading Extremism." In the letter, he said the phrase is not only about infrastructure and product capability. A platform built on security, transparency and responsibility as its baseline is what allows users to trade with greater peace of mind.
The letter ended by calling eight years a milestone and a new starting point. As Bitget enters its ninth year, Ng said, the company will keep moving forward and those unchanged commitments will remain part of its foundation.