Six years ago, Bitget was a little-known name in the cryptocurrency world, a niche exchange founded in 2018 during a bruising market downturn. Today, the Seychelles-based exchange has morphed into one of the largest crypto exchanges, with a user base above 100 million by the end of 2024. Daily trading volumes increased substantially, reaching an average of around $20 billion, representing a doubling compared to the previous year.
Initially, Bitget’s operations were primarily concentrated in East Asia, with this region accounting for roughly 90% of its users in 2021. But as it grew, Bitget looked further afield. “We knew we had to expand beyond our home turf,” said Gracy Chen, Bitget’s chief executive, in a recent interview. Under Gracy Chen, Bitget expanded into South and Southeast Asia, Africa, and Latin America – regions often overlooked by its established rivals. The effort paid off: South Asia’s share of Bitget users tripled to about 15% last year, and Southeast Asia’s slice grew to over 12%, according to company reports. In Africa, Bitget recorded astonishing growth off a small base – a 1,600% surge in users during 2024 – after the exchange tailored offerings to local needs. Chen, an MIT-educated former managing director who became CEO in 2024, credits “being sharper and more innovative than the competition” for winning over users.
Bitget was also quick to support certain projects popular in these regions; for instance, it invested in The Open Network (TON), a blockchain tied to the Telegram messaging app, and promptly saw a spike of new sign-ups in Nigeria as gamers there flocked to trade TON-related tokens. “There was a period when we had more app downloads in Nigeria than even Google or TikTok,” Chen quipped, highlighting the pent-up demand Bitget tapped into.
Bitget’s international expansion was accelerated by turmoil among Bitget’s bigger competitors. When the high-flying exchange FTX collapsed in late 2022, it sent millions of disillusioned traders searching for alternative platforms. Bitget, having emphasized security practices such as regularly publishing proof-of-reserves reports, avoided direct exposure to the FTX incident and consequently attracted new users. At the same time, Binance began facing regulatory crackdowns in the United States and Europe, which forced it to pull back from some countries. That created an opening for emerging exchanges like Bitget to capture market share in places where Binance retreated. “Opportunities opened up for rival exchanges to pick up customers around the globe,” Chen observed. Bitget moved assertively but also carefully; it courted users in regions like Southeast Asia and Africa yet stayed away from certain difficult jurisdictions.
Notably, Bitget does not operate in the U.S. due to regulatory restrictions on offshore exchanges. Chen has indicated the company is eyeing an eventual U.S. entry, potentially via partnerships with licensed local firms, but for now Bitget is content to grow elsewhere rather than wade into a thicket of regulatory uncertainty.
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