Bitget has emerged as a significant player in the International crypto scene, recently claiming the fourth spot among global exchanges.
In an exclusive interview during Token2049 in Singapore, Vugar Usi Zade, Chief Operating Officer of Bitget, offered his insights into the current state of the crypto market, the success of Bitget Wallet, and the future of meme coins.
Some people think that Bitget’s growth is part of a larger phenomenon of splitting Binance’s share among competitors. Do you agree?
It is true, but more importantly, we don’t see the market cap growing and that’s why the industry has become very fierce. We must compete for the same customers.
Changing from one exchange to another is just one click for every user, and an average user would have 3-4 apps on their phones or on the desktop. There will be completed KYCs on all of them and they will choose which to use depending on the transaction fees or availability of the tokens and projects.
We’ll be looking at different ways how we can attract customers. The total market cap is not growing, but still, the user number is growing. There are more and more new users coming or exploring the industry.
What is the current market trend that keeps the market cap from growing while the user base is expanding?
People have less disposable income. And we saw a recession and unemployment in the greatest economies like Japan and the US. In such circumstances, we usually see two trends: either that people come to do a dollar-cost averaging(DCA) kind of long-term holding strategy with large tokens like Bitcoin, Ethereum, and top 10, or that people become keen on meme tokens or early-stage projects they can still do 10x, 20x.
Especially for the latter, we see a huge influx from the underdeveloped economies of the CIS, Africa, and Latin America. That was the narrative of the crypto from the beginning: get rich quick, and people are still chasing that dream.
Bitget Wallet scored the top in the App Store charts in Nigeria in July. What was special about Nigeria?
Last month Bitget Wallet became the most downloaded wallet and it surpassed Metamask. Therefore, it’s not only in Nigeria. We see the same trend globally happening.
In the middle of the bear market, we invested $30 million in BitKeep and rebranded to Bitget Wallet. While everyone was holding back and cutting costs, we believed in decentralization and long-term goals. We wanted to have a decentralized wallet and centralized product engaged with our decentralized app where users can access more and more opportunities out there.
As an exchange, we list around 800-900 projects, while in Bitget Wallet there are 23,000 projects listed and more and more people come to explore what the decentralized side of the crypto has to offer. It functions almost like an exchange. We have the best cataloging when it comes to finding projects.
Moreover, we provide unique features. I heard those Bitget Wallet users in Southeast Asia were earning some money by doing the tasks that are given on the wallet, whether it is social activation or collecting some airdrops. People in underdeveloped countries could have a lot of interest in these features.
Bitget was the first among major exchanges to list some memecoins like CATI. How do you see the future of meme coins?
Meme tokens are the hot topic of this market cycle. They offer the opportunity to make 20x or 30x, which aligns with the ‘get rich fast’ narrative of crypto. They’ve become vital for many crypto projects and bring a lot of transactions, wallet holders, and user interaction.
We’re seeing interest from institutions and family offices too. However, they’re very risky assets. I always tell people to only invest money they’re ready to lose in meme tokens, as almost 90 percent of investors lose their money.
Bitget is famous for football sponsorship. What are your expectations?
For the last two years, we have been very loud with our Make it Count campaign with Lionel Messi. He was our official ambassador previously. We also did a lot of brand partnerships with Juventus. Football was a core topic when it came to Bitget and people know us for football.
We are proud that we will sponsor the Spanish league, La Liga, and bring Spanish football to 2.5 billion people globally. And you’ll be seeing a lot of Bitget brand activation and marketing campaigns around La Liga, all the teams and sportsmen that will be competing for the Cup.
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