Bitget's Gracy Chen is on the lookout for 'entrepreneurs, not wantrepreneurs'

Younger ladies who grew up in Asia within the ’90s have been enamored by feminine anchor Yang Lan, very like 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 the planet (though Binance lately introduced Yi He as co-CEO together with Richard Teng.) Chen was poised, optimistic 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 pc scientist and inventor Ray Kurzweil. 

It was the proper function for the curious host, standing on the entrance line of improvements, constructing her little black e-book of contacts. This was 2014 in Beijing, and it was on this inside circle of tech and TV associates that she first heard about “this factor referred to as Bitcoin.” She purchased slightly 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 corporations. One failure, one unicorn. 

The primary firm, Accumulus, was a monetary know-how service offering cost settlement for freelancers in China. “The corporate nonetheless exists in the present day and has greater than 100 million customers. It’s the most important taxpayer within the Tianjin province,” Chen mentioned. 

The second startup, ReigVR, was a VR metaverse firm. She shut that down as a result of it wasn’t doing effectively. Though these endeavors weren’t in crypto, Chen mentioned there have been similarities, on condition that she constructed a platform to take care of plenty of transactions every day. 

Over these seven years, she continued to put money into cryptocurrencies and crypto corporations 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 in the present day as CEO. She introduced sturdy advertising and marketing chops and a bias to construct. She knew the formulation for achievement: Scale up, get worthwhile, then IPO – not like crypto initiatives, the place IPO exercise occurs early and startups aren’t incentivized to proceed to scale. 

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

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

A kind of initiatives introduced her again to her TV roots, when she turned a decide on Killer Whales – Shark Tank’s doppelganger for crypto corporations. 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 Day by 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 particular person, I’ve an MBA from MIT, and I’m CEO of this large crypto alternate. So, I used that very same form of judging standards after we have been reviewing the initiatives. If a undertaking had good fundamentals, a enterprise mannequin that made sense, good money influx and income, and the founders have been critical, I’d normally go for it. They must be entrepreneurs, not wantrepreneurs.” 

She was delay by initiatives with boastful founders. “We had a well-known YouTuber inform us it will be simple to switch his followers into customers,” Chen shared. She had a gentle spot for female-led initiatives. 

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 acquired aired on the varsity’s TV each week. In the future, certainly one of my associates mentioned that I had turn out 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 can be misunderstood, so she moved on. It gave her thick pores and skin to be within the public eye. 

Ladies 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 courses, 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 understanding something about structure. I most likely killed numerous ants,” she tells Journal. 

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

Her mom was her function mannequin. She taught Chen the significance of being unbiased, 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 gained silver on the Nationwide Olympics Mathematical Video games in China and went on to review at one of the best highschool in Sichuan, which was very know-how and science-focused,” Chen says. This led to a scholarship program in utilized arithmetic overseas, in Singapore, the place she discovered herself in courses largely with males. 

Like mom, like daughter. 

Anybody can turn out to be a CEO, she believes. 

Operating a multinational company with 1,500 staff 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 may elevate our model’s picture, improve our person base and get extra buying and selling quantity. I would like folks to share the identical concept of hiring or selling somebody based mostly on their outcomes, as a substitute of their marital standing or gender.” 

Bitget administration is majority feminine

Bitget’s administration workforce is 51% feminine, which is exceptional in crypto and tech generally. 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. 

Satirically, 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 undertaking, however we don’t put money into feminine founders – particularly those that are married however don’t have kids 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 underneath a pseudonym, and in crypto most individuals don’t have biases based mostly on the gender of the particular person 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 certainly one of our Company Social Accountability (CSR) efforts to create impression by way of training and inclusion, particularly round gender,” she says. 

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

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

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

“We wish 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 turn out 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 workforce at residence, not simply at work, to be able to handle all the things,” Chen explains. 

Gracy Chen’s private life

Working single moms are in a league of their very own, and Chen proves that ladies can achieve an government function, and crypto’s remote-first nature permits for this. It simply requires ingenuity and a sound help system. Chen would possibly 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 gymnasium, hikes, and tries to remain in Hong Kong for longer intervals, slightly than following the convention circuit. 

Her residence life is deliberately easy, juxtaposed with Bitget’s development objectives. Institutional companions, PayFi and cross-border transactions are three major areas of focus. 

“I’m enthusiastic about tokenizing RWAs and the intersection of conventional property with crypto, which helps drive an ongoing wave of institutional adoption. It bridges a pathway for ladies in typical monetary markets to step into crypto and ladies in crypto get entry to international property 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 initiatives funded. All of this collectively has a optimistic impression for ladies in crypto.” 

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

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

Subscribe

Essentially the most participating reads in blockchain. Delivered as soon as a
week.

Amanda Smith

Amanda Smith, a former contributor at Cointelegraph, is an completed author and tradition journalist. Her skill to carry a mirror as much as society, to see each the malaise and majesty, has led to assignments with extremely revered titles corresponding to The Guardian, Enterprise Insider, and Nationwide Geographic. She has coated crypto, AI, and finance for CNET, NerdWallet, and MIT Expertise Evaluate. An Australian, she at present lives in New York Metropolis.