Bitget’s Gracy Chen is looking for ‘entrepreneurs, not wantrepreneurs’

Younger women who grew up in Asia within the ’90s have been enamored by feminine anchor Yang Lan, very similar to Individuals have been with Oprah. Gracy Chen was so impressed that she adopted Lan right into a profession as a TV host and producer.

Chen then went from TV host to entrepreneur, falling in love with the mathematical fantastic thing about Bitcoin and later turned the one feminine CEO main one of many 5 greatest exchanges on this planet (though Binance not too long ago introduced Yi He as co-CEO together with Richard Teng.) Chen was poised, constructive and pragmatic when she spoke to Journal.

Throughout her stint at Phoenix TV, she interviewed enterprise leaders and celebrities like enterprise capitalist Tim Draper and famend laptop scientist and inventor Ray Kurzweil.

Gracy Chen (provided)

It was the proper function for the curious host, standing on the entrance line of improvements, constructing her little black ebook of contacts. This was 2014 in Beijing, and it was on this internal circle of tech and TV associates that she first heard about “this factor referred to as Bitcoin.” She purchased a bit of little bit of Bitcoin, which was USD $300 on the time, however the funding was rather more than she bargained for.

However extra on that later.

Chen had the entrepreneurial itch after interviewing all these founders and futurists, so within the subsequent seven years she created two firms. One failure, one unicorn.

The primary firm, Accumulus, was a monetary expertise service offering cost settlement for freelancers in China. “The corporate nonetheless exists as we speak and has greater than 100 million customers. It’s the biggest taxpayer within the Tianjin province,” Chen stated.

The second startup, ReigVR, was a VR metaverse firm. She shut that down as a result of it wasn’t doing nicely. Though these endeavors weren’t in crypto, Chen stated there have been similarities, provided that she constructed a platform to cope with a lot of transactions every day.

Over these seven years, she continued to put money into cryptocurrencies and crypto firms and seen a lot of her private wealth had come from that early-stage Bitcoin she purchased. She had a realization: “If I make investments my cash in crypto, why not make investments my time in crypto, too.”

From fintech to crypto CEO

In 2022, Chen joined main cryptocurrency alternate, Bitget, first as managing director and as we speak as CEO. She introduced sturdy advertising and marketing chops and a bias to construct. She knew the system for success: Scale up, get worthwhile, then IPO – not like crypto tasks, the place IPO exercise occurs early and startups aren’t incentivized to proceed to scale.

Gracy Chen on the duvet of Dec. 15 version of Gulf Information.

Bitget has since skilled document progress, doubled its person base from round 50 million to 120 million, and secured a spot among the many high 5 crypto exchanges in derivatives buying and selling volumes.

Chen additionally performs a key function in institutional enterprise growth, working intently with main purchasers and companions to strengthen Bitget’s world presence.

A type of initiatives introduced her again to her TV roots, when she turned a decide on Killer Whales – Shark Tank’s doppelganger for crypto firms. It was streamed on mainstream platforms, together with Apple TV and Amazon Prime. She was the one feminine, Asian and alternate consultant on the panel, sitting alongside the likes of Anthony Scaramucci and YouTubers Austin Arnold from Altcoin Each day and Ran Neuner from Crypto Banter.

Chen was solely capable of take part in a single episode in season one, however discovered her footing in season two. “I’m a statistics individual, I’ve an MBA from MIT, and I’m CEO of this huge crypto alternate. So, I used that very same form of judging standards once we have been reviewing the tasks. If a mission had good fundamentals, a enterprise mannequin that made sense, good money influx and income, and the founders have been severe, I’d often go for it. They must be entrepreneurs, not wantrepreneurs.”

She was postpone by tasks with conceited founders. “We had a well-known YouTuber inform us it might be simple to switch his followers into customers,” Chen shared. She had a tender spot for female-led tasks.

Chen had expertise blocking out the haters, not from her days in TV, however from her teenage years when she ran the varsity station. “After I was 16, I bought aired on the varsity’s TV each week. In the future, one among my associates stated that I had grow to be well-known on this Chinese language Reddit. They have been writing unhealthy issues about me that weren’t true.” She discovered that if she have been a speaker, she could be misunderstood, so she moved on. It gave her thick pores and skin to be within the public eye.

Girls in excessive locations

Chen all the time went in opposition to the grain. A troublemaker, tinkerer and pseudo-scientist, she was the token naughty child. She skipped lessons, didn’t do her homework and spent all her time obsessive about oddities. “I attempted to construct this little swimming pool for ants, with out realizing something about structure. I most likely killed a variety of ants,” she tells Journal.

She grew up in Sichuan, China, in a time when son choice was prevalent. However difficult custom was in her blood. Chen got here from a damaged house and was raised by a single mom who fought for a spot at a high college within the province, the place she bought her MBA.

Her mom was her function mannequin. She taught Chen the significance of being impartial, each financially and as a life philosophy. Mischievous, Chen quickly found a love for math, and shortly, the unhealthy scholar turned the scholarship scholar.

“I received silver on the Nationwide Olympics Mathematical Video games in China and went on to review at the very best highschool in Sichuan, which was very expertise and science-focused,” Chen says. This led to a scholarship program in utilized arithmetic overseas, in Singapore, the place she discovered herself in lessons largely with males.

Like mom, like daughter.

Anybody can grow to be a CEO, she believes.

Operating a multinational company with 1,500 workers is a tall order for anybody, no matter gender. “I’m Bitget’s CEO, not as a result of I’m feminine, however as a result of I’m bringing outcomes to the desk,” Chen shares.

“Within the two and a half years earlier than I turned CEO, I proved that I might elevate our model’s picture, improve our person base and get extra buying and selling quantity. I would like individuals to share the identical thought of hiring or selling somebody primarily based on their outcomes, as a substitute of their marital standing or gender.”

Chen delivers Bitget’s UEX announce (Bitget)

Bitget administration is majority feminine

Bitget’s administration crew is 51% feminine, which is extraordinary in crypto and tech typically. Whereas Chen says the gender ratio isn’t intentional, Bitget’s philosophy of open communication, 360-degree evaluations each 90 days, “bonus of beginning”, and rewards for steady studying attracts girls.

Sarcastically, her battle tales as a feminine CEO are from her Web2 days.

“Whereas I used to be elevating funds for my VR firm, I had buyers inform me, Gracy, we such as you and your mission, however we don’t put money into feminine founders – particularly those that are married however don’t have youngsters but.”

However crypto? It’s been good to her.

“There are lesser preconceived notions in comparison with the male-dominated conventional tech world. Bitcoin was made below a pseudonym, and in crypto most individuals don’t have biases primarily based on the gender of the individual main the corporate. They care about creating nice merchandise, and that’s what we ship.”

Chen acknowledges there’s nonetheless a solution to go to stability the gender ratio in crypto and that Bitget is an outlier.

“It’s been one among our Company Social Accountability (CSR) efforts to create affect via schooling and inclusion, particularly round gender,” she says.

In the course of the World Financial Discussion board in 2024, Chen launched a mission referred to as Blockchain4Her, a $10 million program to provide female-led start-ups funding, mentorship and alternatives, significantly in creating nations.

Gracy Chen (DreamTemple)

This system fosters inclusivity and gender range within the blockchain business and is supported by a partnership with UNICEF which is able to present schooling to 1.1 million individuals worldwide by 2027.

Bitget is concurrently funding $10 million for the Blockchain4Youth mission to onboard and educate the youthful schooling.

“We need to show that crypto needs to be used for good and needs to be obtainable for everybody,” Chen believes.

Particularly girls and moms.

Chen went on to grow to be a single mom herself, and he or she channels these traits into her function as CEO. “I lead with excessive integrity and open communication, that are the examples I set for my son.”

“I construct a crew at house, not simply at work, in an effort to handle every little thing,” Chen explains.

Gracy Chen’s private life

Working single moms are in a league of their very own, and Chen proves that girls can reach an govt function, and crypto’s remote-first nature permits for this. It simply requires ingenuity and a sound help system. Chen may miss an athletic day at college, however she will take her son to Paris on a whim. It makes for an fascinating life, emulating the formative experiences her mom gave her.

In her private life, her ambitions are modest. She practices yoga, reads, meditates, goes to the fitness center, hikes, and tries to remain in Hong Kong for longer durations, slightly than following the convention circuit.

Her house life is deliberately easy, juxtaposed with Bitget’s progress targets. Institutional companions, PayFi and cross-border transactions are three most important areas of focus.

“I’m enthusiastic about tokenizing RWAs and the intersection of conventional belongings with crypto, which is serving to drive an ongoing wave of institutional adoption. It bridges a pathway for girls in typical monetary markets to step into crypto and ladies in crypto get entry to world belongings worldwide,” Chen says.

“Constructive regulatory developments are additionally serving to develop crypto adoption, drive consciousness to get extra girls educated about crypto, and even get their tasks funded. All of this collectively has a constructive affect for girls in crypto.”

Chen jokes about her identify being “very feminine,” which she’s joyful about. She takes nice pleasure in individuals realizing the CEO of Bitget is a lady.

With different feminine crypto leaders rising the ranks, resembling Solana Basis’s Lily Lu, Chen says, “it’s undoubtedly getting higher.”