Gate founder and CEO Dr. Han said a world in which users trade less and spend more through everyday financial services would be "a better business" for the platform. His reasoning was straightforward: existing trading users will keep trading, while a much larger pool of mainstream users does not need to buy and sell frequently. What they need are tools to receive money, send remittances, hold assets and make daily payments.
On Oct. 7, Gate introduced Gate Money during TOKEN2049 in Singapore, connecting fiat, digital assets, stocks, gold, bank accounts and payments in a single app. Two days later, TechFlow interviewed Han about why a platform founded 13 years ago is now pushing deeper into daily financial services.
A new starting point after 13 years as an exchange
Han said the latest upgrade is about both product structure and what Gate wants to build next. The company previously centered on trading, starting with crypto asset trading before adding traditional asset categories such as stocks and commodities.
The next step, he said, is to cover everyday spending, expenses, remittances and payments for a broader set of users. As the target audience changes, the product has to change with it.
Users can now switch between the exchange and Gate Money inside the app. Gate Money is aimed at mainstream users, with a simpler interface designed around functions they are more likely to use in daily life. Han said that audience is much larger than Gate’s original trading user base, which is why he sees this phase as another starting point for the company.
Traditional finance required licenses and partnership networks
Asked why Gate entered traditional financial services relatively late, Han said one reason was that crypto infrastructure was more controllable in the early years. With internet access, many parts of the stack could be built internally, which meant less reliance on outside partners.
Traditional finance works differently. Access to assets such as stocks and gold requires brokers, clearing firms and custodians. The industry already runs on an established framework, and some services cannot be offered without the right licenses.
Han said Gate later pushed licensing and qualification work across multiple markets, covering trading, custody and other financial services. Only after building that foundation could the company work with partners and offer those services. He said Gate had wanted to do more earlier, but the necessary conditions were not yet in place.
Gate Money is meant to connect asset management with spending
Han said the main product change is the ability to manage different kinds of assets inside one app. Crypto remains important, but Gate also wants to cover assets and services that many users already know and use, including stocks, gold, cash and daily payments.
He also pointed to a second shift: connecting asset management to consumption. Gate wants users to spend funds and assets from their accounts through Gate Card, making the link between holding assets and using them in daily life more direct. Han used the example of buying a cup of coffee with stock exposure to describe the kind of experience Gate Money is trying to build.
Where yield comes from across cash, crypto and stocks
On the question of yield, Han said the underlying mechanisms differ by asset class. Retail users who try to find those channels on their own, or hire specialized asset managers, may face high costs and still lack a clear view of underlying risks. Gate’s goal, he said, is to make the source of returns more transparent.
He described the breakdown this way:
- Cash-based yield mainly comes from instruments such as government bonds and money market funds.
- For crypto assets including Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH), yield sources vary. Ethereum can generate returns through onchain staking, while Bitcoin has related yield protocols as well.
- Another important source is lending. Han cited Gate’s flexible yield product, where assets are lent out and borrowers mainly use them for trading.
- Stocks also have lending markets. Gate works with brokers and clearing firms so that users can earn returns when held shares are lent out.
He stressed that stock lending income is different from buying a stock and waiting for its price to rise, since gains tied to price movement come with higher volatility and risk. On crypto yield products, Han said Gate would choose mature protocols and services, and would be less likely to offer products tied to riskier tokens.
Tokenized stocks usually provide economic exposure, not voting rights
Han said tokenized stocks generally follow two paths. One is to work directly with the issuing company, with the issuer involved in placing part of the stock onchain. The other is to buy the stock first and then wrap it for onchain issuance. He said many current products use the second model.
Under that structure, the underlying stock is allocated and holders receive economic rights linked to the stock, but these products usually do not carry voting rights. Dividend treatment depends on the arrangements of each product, he added.
In the case of gStocks, Han said the product distributes corresponding dividends to users, and Gate will regularly announce which stocks pay dividends and how those payments are handled.
Regional differences depend on local licensing and regulation
Han said Gate Money will not look the same in every market. Differences will depend on local licenses and regulatory requirements.
In some places, general functions may be offered while wealth management features are restricted. In others, separate licenses may be required. Some jurisdictions may not permit certain services at all. For that reason, the app’s available functions will vary by region.
The easiest mistake in a super app is assuming every market uses products the same way
Han said Gate Money’s first phase builds on users whose needs are already visible: people who hold crypto and want to spend it or convert it into fiat, and users who want yield products around stablecoins. Gate Card and other services already cover part of the spending use case, while Gate has offered wealth products for years.
The company now wants to expand toward two more user groups.
One group consists of people who are not well served by existing banks. Han gave the example of users in some regions who want to open an account in another country but would need to travel in person, making access difficult. Gate wants eligible users to be able to open same-name accounts online, receive international payments and use related transfer services. He said that is a practical need for people working overseas who need to send money home.
The second group lives in mature financial markets but is dissatisfied with the current service experience. Han said some traditional financial institutions rely on systems that have been in place for many years, making adjustments costly and upgrades conservative. Gate wants to offer those users services that are lighter, faster and lower-cost.
Han said one major mistake in building a super app is failing to respect local user habits. He said Gate previously made a significant error by trying to understand all markets through the lens of Chinese-speaking users. Some people prefer dense interfaces with many buttons and lots of information because they see that as efficient. But some overseas users open the app and do not know where to tap because there are too many buttons and too many numbers.
Those users need a heavily simplified product that puts only the most necessary functions in front of them. Some products may even hide chain details and technical information. Han said many users do not want to study those details; they just want to complete a task.
The second problem is trying to build too many things at once. If every feature is broad but rough, the result may be less comfortable than using a dedicated app that does one thing better. At the same time, Han said Gate has heard the opposite feedback from some Chinese-speaking users who do not want the product to become too simple, so the company is still working through that balance.
Competing with brokers means solving liquidity, not just extending hours
Asked about competition with traditional brokerages entering crypto while Gate pushes into stocks and gold, Han said plainly that Gate is competing on other firms’ home turf. Traditional platforms are already strong in stocks, and while Gate has tried to penetrate that market, it is difficult to quickly take market share from incumbents. The reverse is also true, he said: it takes time for traditional financial firms to enter crypto.
User conversion is a long process. Han said the first people using these newer services are still mainly existing crypto users, not traditional finance users who have already migrated over.
On tokenized stocks, he said 24/7 trading is one clear difference from traditional markets. But longer trading hours by themselves are not enough. If market depth outside regular trading sessions is poor, users will still find the experience weak. Gate therefore needs to keep building scale and liquidity, because only when round-the-clock trading has enough depth will users have a stronger reason to switch.
Trading still drives revenue today, but Han expects payments to overtake it
Han was direct when asked whether lower trading frequency and greater everyday spending would still be good for Gate: he said yes, it would be a better business.
He said trading users take a long time to cultivate. Once they have learned how to trade and formed their habits, they are unlikely to stop trading simply because the platform adds consumer finance features. For those users, the new functions mainly add ways to hold and spend assets.
The bigger opportunity, in his view, lies with users who do not trade at all but still need to manage their money and make daily payments. In the past, those users could arrive on the platform and still struggle because the product was too focused on trading workflows and too complex for them. Gate wants this upgrade to serve that additional market.
As for the current revenue mix, Han said trading still accounts for the larger share. Gate Pay has been operating for some time and the business is growing, but its contribution to total revenue remains small. For now, those payment services still rely mainly on crypto assets and have not yet expanded to a very large mainstream daily-user base.
Even so, Han said he believes payment-related and daily-use financial services will eventually exceed trading, though that shift will take time because user habits still need to be built.
GT’s place in the system: burn mechanics and ecosystem benefits
Han said GT’s role in the Gate Money system has two parts. First, the broader ecosystem already has a burn mechanism, and Gate hopes Gate Money will bring a larger user base and business growth after launch.
He said one of the company’s expectations is to double its user base over the next one to two years.
Second, Gate wants to place GT deeper into the service ecosystem through fee discounts and related user benefits. Han said users who hold GT and use the platform over a longer period tend to have a more sustained relationship with Gate, and the company wants to improve related services around that group.
Moving from trading to payments may reduce system complexity
On internal controls, compliance and fund safety, Han said the shift from trading toward payments does require changes, but it does not automatically make the system more complex.
He described trading accounts as highly complicated. A unified account can include spot, futures, lending, margin and wealth products, with multiple positions and margin requirements to manage, plus liquidation calculations. That makes both asset management and risk control difficult.
Payment accounts, by comparison, are simpler. Their main functions are to accept assets, send payments and add limited wealth management features. From that angle, Han said the system is actually less complex. On security, he said little changes at the base layer: assets are stored using the same methods as before, including hot and cold wallets and other security protections.
Transparency is central if users are to place daily funds on the platform
Han said trust starts partly with brand and track record, since users look at what a platform has done before. But he put greater emphasis on openness and clarity.
If Gate works with third parties to buy U.S. Treasuries or custody assets, he said users need to know whether those counterparties are transparent, whether the underlying assets are really there, and what risks exist. Those details need to be disclosed.
For crypto assets, some information can be checked directly onchain. Han said that beyond Gate’s own reserve reports, users can compare third-party data with onchain balances to see whether there are obvious discrepancies, though he noted that third-party coverage has limits.
As more assets are added later, including stock assets, Gate is also discussing with third parties how to disclose holdings on a regular basis, including what the platform holds and what users hold, so users can see more of the picture. Han said Gate’s 13-year operating history makes trust easier to build, but only if users can actually see the underlying information.
A research mindset still shapes product decisions
Han, who has a doctorate in optics, said the specific knowledge from his academic background does not always map directly onto what Gate is building today. The way of thinking from research, however, still matters.
In research, he said, innovation must be taken seriously. Repeating work that already exists is not the main value. Engineering refinement and commercial rollout belong to another layer. In business, many companies put much of their effort into benchmarking existing products and polishing execution. Han said those things matter, but his background keeps reminding him to balance maturity with genuinely new ideas.
That matters more, he added, at a time when both AI and blockchain are moving quickly and new things keep appearing.
Five years from now, finance may start with voice and dialogue
Looking ahead five years, Han said that when Gate AI was being prepared earlier this year, he told his team that AI could handle many tasks through a single dialogue box, potentially changing the entire entry point and form of the product.
After several months of work, though, he concluded that the path is not simple. A user can tell a chat interface to buy a token or complete an action, and the function may work, but the experience breaks down if it is too slow.
If a decision takes 10 to 20 seconds, Han said, users will find that difficult to accept. What he wants is a future in which users can simply speak to their phones, have the system understand the request, and execute it quickly.
He gave the example of having the system review an asset allocation, take a request for adjustment and return suggestions, without forcing the user to jump between many pages. Response speed, he said, is critical.
AI agents may handle more of the market, while Gate focuses on funds management
Han said AI agents are likely to take on more work over time, but he sees that development from both the buyer side and the seller side.
In his description, each side could have its own assistant: one helping to sell, another helping to buy, with the two comparing prices and matching opportunities. People are limited by time and geography and cannot efficiently compare that many merchants. Agents can do more price comparison, which Han said should help produce fairer pricing.
Gate’s own role, he said, is mainly the part related to managing funds. Other players may focus on agents for buying, selling and consumer-facing use cases. Gate wants its AI functions to help users with asset allocation, reduce mismatches caused by opaque information and improve capital efficiency.
TechFlow’s closing note on Han’s own "new starting point"
In the postscript to the interview, TechFlow wrote that two days after the conversation ended, the Red Bull racing team sponsored by Gate won in Singapore, with Max Verstappen taking the Singapore Grand Prix. On Nov. 12, Han is also set to appear at The Oxford Union to speak to another audience.
TechFlow said Han still comes across as someone with a strong engineering temperament and an introverted personality. In the interview, whether speaking about the difference between research and entrepreneurship or explaining why a 10- to 20-second wait can damage product experience, his answers still started from technical details and concrete problems.
At the same time, he has been appearing more often in public settings and on camera. From industry events to media interviews and the upcoming Oxford appearance, he is now explaining what he is building and why to audiences with very different backgrounds. In TechFlow’s telling, the question of a "new starting point" applies not only to Gate, but also to Han himself.
