OKX CEO Star Xu emphasizes exchanges should profit from technology and services, not customer funds, citing refusal to engage with yield strategies or credit lines.
Regulation & Gov ·
OKX founder and CEO Star Xu stated in a podcast interview that exchanges should derive revenue from technology and services rather than customer deposits. He recalled declining a yield-earning proposal from Three Arrows Capital and rejecting credit line requests and delayed liquidation terms from other prime brokers, according to reporting on his New Era Finance Podcast appearance.
Xu framed this approach as a matter of principle: protecting customer funds represents the most important practice for an exchange navigating market cycles, even as assets under management expand. His position implicitly distinguishes between revenue models tied to proprietary trading, lending, or financial product yields—which create conflicts with custody duties—and those rooted in platform infrastructure and user-facing services.
The statement reflects a stance on exchange risk management that emerged following several high-profile custodial failures in the sector, though Xu did not explicitly reference those events. Whether other major exchanges adopt comparable policies, or how this principle affects OKX's competitive positioning or product roadmap, remains unclear.