OKX founder and CEO Star said the exchange’s push in Europe, its internal use of AI, and its product roadmap are all tied to a broader shift from being a pure technology team to becoming what he described as a real fintech company.
In an interview with quant and crypto analyst Julien, co-founder of Mirov, Star also revisited his early Bitcoin history, his missed chance to list Ethereum early, and his view that Bitcoin remains the core asset for most people in crypto.
Europe expansion and compliance structure
Julien introduced OKX as one of the world’s largest crypto platforms, saying it has more than 100 million registered accounts and processes tens of billions of dollars in weekly trading volume.
Asked why he chose this moment to engage more directly with the European community, Star said OKX had already started building in Europe in 2017 and 2018. He said the company’s culture has long been clear: do not cross compliance red lines.
Star said OKX began as a pure technology team. But when the company met regulators with strong products and engineering, the first question was not about the technology. Regulators wanted to see corporate governance and compliance architecture. He described those years as a painful transformation.
By 2023 and 2024, he said, OKX had kept iterating and could now call itself a genuine fintech company. In his framing, the “Fin” stands for disciplined governance and compliance, while the “Tech” stands for product quality and user experience.
Star said OKX has secured MiCA, MiFID and payments licenses in Europe. He added that regulators visit the company’s offices every six months for on-site inspections. As MiCA deadlines arrived, he said, large numbers of users moved from offshore platforms to regulated ones, and OKX was one of the destinations. He said the company had stayed low-profile in the past but now wants to be closer to the community and hear directly from users.
Early crypto years: buying BTC at about $10 and making roughly 10,000 BTC
Looking back on his first encounter with crypto, Star said it was around 2011. He became curious after hearing the line “Bitcoin is the future” in the TV series The Good Wife, then searched Google, found Satoshi Nakamoto’s white paper, and signed up for Mt.Gox.
With a CTO background and control of hundreds of servers, he said he wrote code to test mining. He added that his first Bitcoin purchase was made at roughly $10.
Julien brought up a story that Star had once made 10,000 BTC through an early dice game. Star said that happened around 2012 and 2013 with a project called Just a Dice, which he described as an on-chain liquidity pool. The platform had a 51% win rate and users had 49%, with the code and mathematical logic visible on-chain.
He said the random seed was relatively simple and that statistical analysis made it possible to infer trends. He then wrote a market-making algorithm: when the platform was losing money, he increased his allocation; when the platform was making large profits, he pulled capital back. Through that strategy, he said, he made about 10,000 BTC. At the time, a single bet could be as large as 500 BTC.
Star also recalled that when OKX was founded in 2013, most platforms only supported Bitcoin. He said OKX became the first platform globally to list Litecoin, which brought in a large amount of traffic.
By 2017, though, he said he had become more conservative. As Ethereum was just emerging, Vitalik asked him directly whether he wanted to list ETH. Star said he viewed it at the time as a “shitcoin” and missed the earliest opportunity. He said that experience taught him to stay open to innovation.
Bitcoin as the base allocation
When asked how life changed between making his first $1 million and later reaching $1 billion, Star said he is not the kind of person who likes to show off wealth. What stood out to him instead was the compounding effect of time: the money he made in the fifth year after graduating exceeded the total from the first four years, and what he made in the tenth year far surpassed the total from the previous nine.
He said anyone who wants to establish themselves in crypto needs to build a “nexus” with the industry.
Star said he knows many people who run trading firms or manage funds worth hundreds of millions of dollars, but his conclusion is that no fund can outperform Bitcoin. He added that he often jokes in the community that if someone does not even own 10 BTC, they should not come to an industry conference. For most people, he said, Bitcoin should be the base investment.
On what successful traders have in common, Star said trading is an extremely serious professional activity. Some people chase the thrill of liquidation and profit, but professional traders come down to two things: strict risk control and strong self-discipline.
His summary was simple: in crypto markets, the most important thing is to make sure you stay at the table.
Product roadmap in Europe
Star said OKX is focusing on several product areas for European users in the coming months.
- Bot marketplace: He said the alpha in the data is clear, with users who trade through bots showing significantly better average PnL than manual traders. OKX has introduced AI to analyze markets and recommend parameters, and plans to let users share their own algorithmic strategies.
- Simple options: He said OKX launched options under its MiFID license and built simplified tools that include advanced strategies such as cash-secured puts.
- Tokenized stocks and RWA: Star said OKX has listed equity perpetual contracts tied to names such as SpaceX and OpenAI, and has also worked with Liechtenstein-regulated project XStock to launch compliant spot tokenized stocks.
- Low-rate lending: He said annualized borrowing rates on many European platforms can run as high as 300%, while OKX uses market-based floating rates that can bring annualized borrowing costs down to around 1.5%. He added that 90% of the yield goes directly to users on the lending side.
How OKX is using AI internally
Star said more than 90% of OKX’s routine coding and testing work is now completed 100% by AI.
He described a workflow in which product managers feed PRDs into an in-house AI platform, which then generates code and runs tens of thousands of tests automatically. Engineers review the output before release.
In his view, the next five years of fintech will be rebuilt around blockchain and AI. He pointed to traditional cross-border remittances that charge 5% to 10% as an example of what should change. Using stablecoins and self-custody technology, including OKX Pay’s 2-of-2 multisignature structure, he said it is possible to achieve global 24/7 settlement at zero cost.
He framed that vision as building the next generation of fintech services for younger users around the world.
Advice to younger founders
At the end of the interview, Julien asked what Star would say to the 20-year-old version of himself preparing to start OKX 15 years ago. Star replied: “Go be a VP or CTO. Don’t be a CEO.”
He said being a CEO means carrying all the pressure, working 12 hours a day, eating the same boxed meals as before starting the company, and dealing with endless regulatory reviews and market shocks. If someone simply wants to enjoy life, he said, being a partner or VP is much easier.
Still, he laid out three ingredients for startup success.
- Luck: He said failure is the norm in 90% of startups, and luck and timing determine most outcomes.
- Resilience: No one starts with perfect vision, he said. OKX changed strategy dozens of times, and when money is tight and pressure is high, toughness matters more than capital.
- Being smart: He said hard work alone is not enough if you never look up to see the road ahead. Founders need to keep improving their understanding of the world and the industry.
Julien closed by thanking Star for the conversation. Star replied that they would meet again at Token2049 in Singapore.