Gate has quietly turn into one of many largest cryptocurrency exchanges on the earth. Based in 2013 by Dr. Lin Han as a one-person venture, the platform now serves over 49 million customers, employs greater than 2,000 individuals, and lists over 5,000 tokens alongside a rising suite of conventional monetary merchandise.
In an interview with BeInCrypto, Dr. Han mentioned what drove that development, why he believes the road between crypto and conventional property is disappearing, and the way synthetic intelligence is about to reshape the way in which individuals commerce.
From Solo Developer to International Platform
Dr. Han began Gate — initially launched as Bter.com — by himself. 13 years later, the alternate presents greater than 50 services and products. However he’s fast to downplay the numbers.
“The quantity will not be fairly essential. An important factor is that while you construct a product, you might want to polish it very properly. A rating of 80 p.c will not be sufficient. You want 90% to 95% high quality. You might want to at all times be primary within the product,” he mentioned.
That product-first philosophy prolonged to asset protection early on. In 2013, Gate was among the many first exchanges to aggressively listing altcoins, providing over 100 at a time when most platforms caught to a handful. “At the moment, we had been the one alternate that might do this,” Dr. Han recalled.
The following part of development, he says, will come from regulated markets. Gate now holds licenses throughout 80 jurisdictions, together with 44 US states and protection throughout greater than 20 European nations below MiCA. The platform additionally holds licenses in Dubai, Japan, and Australia.
“We launched our platform for regulated areas final 12 months, however this 12 months we wish to develop the customers there,” Dr. Han mentioned, acknowledging that competing with established native gamers in Europe and different areas stays a problem. “In some areas, they’ve their very own native gamers who’ve operated there for a few years. We’re the brand new participant. We have to let extra individuals learn about us.”
Breaking Down the Wall Between Crypto and Conventional Finance
Gate has been increasing past crypto-native property into what the business broadly calls TradFi integration. The alternate now presents tokenized equities, gold, silver, commodities, and inventory indices — all tradeable 24/7 on the identical platform the place customers handle their crypto portfolios.
Dr. Han described two limitations of conventional markets that drove this transfer: regional restrictions that stop customers in lots of nations from opening US brokerage accounts, and the restricted buying and selling hours of typical inventory exchanges.
“With crypto, we will present a system with very excessive accessibility. They will commerce 24/7, wherever, in any nation. They’ve all types of crypto plus conventional property collectively, managed in the identical approach. It’s a lot simpler for them,” he mentioned.
He additionally pointed to a sensible profit for portfolio building. Crypto property are usually extremely correlated — when Bitcoin drops, most altcoins observe. Including uncorrelated conventional property like gold or US equities offers customers significant diversification for the primary time inside a single platform.
“Earlier than, individuals might solely commerce crypto, and many of the property are correlated. With conventional property, they’ve an alternative choice. Gold is certainly not associated to Bitcoin. You may select silver, commodities, US shares. There are loads of choices to handle your portfolio and decrease your threat,” Dr. Han defined.
Trying additional forward, he sees the excellence between crypto and conventional property fading totally. “Sooner or later, you don’t want to acknowledge which is crypto and which is a standard asset. You may view all of them as your asset. It would change the mindset of how customers handle their portfolio.”
AI: From Interface to Infrastructure
The dialog shifted to synthetic intelligence, the place Dr. Han laid out what he calls “Clever Web3” — a imaginative and prescient the place AI brokers substitute the complicated interfaces that at the moment outline crypto buying and selling.
The issue, as he sees it, is simple: crypto merchandise have turn into too sophisticated, particularly for newcomers. “You see so many numbers, buttons — spot buying and selling, futures buying and selling, choices, earnings. Which one do you have to use? How do you begin? It’s too arduous for individuals,” he mentioned. “And Web3 is much more troublesome. There are greater than 10,000 DApps. Tens of millions of tokens are launched annually. You can not acknowledge which token to decide on.”
Gate’s method unfolds in two levels. The primary, already stay, makes use of AI brokers to assist customers navigate present interfaces — checking token data, explaining platform options, and suggesting buying and selling methods. The second stage is extra bold: changing the normal interface totally.
“They don’t want to make use of the outdated interface, the outdated instruments anymore. They simply inform the AI agent what they need. The AI agent does all the opposite work,” Dr. Han mentioned. “In the event that they wish to purchase Bitcoin, simply say ‘assist me purchase Bitcoin.’ In the event that they wish to earn curiosity, inform AI ‘I wish to put my Bitcoin to get curiosity.’ AI finds the perfect yield for you, and it’s carried out.”
He expects this transition to be seen inside a 12 months, and broadly transformative inside two — a timeline he considers extra reasonable than the five-year horizon typically cited within the business.
“I don’t assume it’s 5 years. Two years, at most,” he mentioned.
Past person expertise, Dr. Han sees AI reshaping how capital strikes by markets. He argued that human-driven capital allocation is inherently inefficient — individuals maintain property idle whereas promising tasks go unfunded. AI brokers, working across the clock and processing data at scale, might enhance that circulate.
“For one individual, we can not assure they will make cash from that. However for the entire ecosystem, it should profit for certain,” he mentioned. “AI can do the labor give you the results you want. You may put your power in different areas. Use your actual intelligence.”Gate has already begun making use of AI internally. In keeping with Dr. Han, almost all front-end coding on the firm is now dealt with by AI, with back-end improvement anticipated to observe quickly.