Gate Founder Dr. Han: The crypto winter drives structural reshaping, and everything going on-chain will become the new paradigm in finance

On April 21, 2026, at the Hong Kong Web3 Carnival main stage, Gate founder and CEO Dr. Han delivered an in-depth speech titled “Move Everything On-Chain.” He systematically outlined the platform’s 13-year evolution and made a highly impactful judgment on the underlying transformation of the global financial system: being on-chain is not an option, but the very form of the financial system.

Thirteen Years of Structural Change: From Trading Platforms to On-Chain Ecosystems

Dr. Han pointed out that Gate has experienced multiple critical structural shifts since its inception. The platform started with digital asset trading in its early days, gradually expanding into a comprehensive platform covering derivatives, asset management, and diversified services, accelerating toward an integrated on-chain ecosystem and multi-asset fusion system. To date, Gate has served over 52 million users worldwide, covering more than 80 jurisdictions, and manages over $10 billion in digital assets, forming a continuously expanding global business foundation. Throughout this process, the platform has continuously adjusted its product structure and technological layout to strengthen infrastructure capabilities and promote ongoing service expansion and upgrades.

Market Status: Crypto Winter and Growing Divide Between TradFi and On-Chain, Unlocking New Growth Opportunities

Dr. Han noted that the current crypto market is in a cyclical adjustment phase: Bitcoin has fallen about 40% from its peak, with the overall market cap dropping from $40 trillion to around $20 trillion, while DEX trading activity and new asset issuance have declined in tandem. Meanwhile, traditional financial markets are performing strongly—gold prices nearly doubled, the Nasdaq rose nearly 30%, crude oil increased about 15%, forming a stark contrast with crypto assets. More importantly, TradFi still far exceeds the crypto market in market size and trading volume—market cap is over a hundred times larger, and trading volume is dozens of times higher. Under this structural disparity, he emphasized that tokenizing traditional financial assets and bringing them on-chain (RWA) will become the core pathway to connect the two systems and unlock incremental space.

Core Insight: On-Chain Is the Future Form of the Financial System

At the core of his speech, Dr. Han emphasized that blockchain is evolving from a technological tool into a financial infrastructure. He believes that the significance of being on-chain is not about creating new asset classes but about reshaping the generation, circulation, and pricing of assets. The on-chain system offers not only efficiency improvements but also a reconstruction of traditional financial structures. Through on-chainization, assets can achieve higher frequency and greater transparency in flow, with transaction and settlement boundaries significantly compressed, thereby redefining the traditional, intermediary-centered model.

Regarding future industry trends, Dr. Han offered an important market judgment: future finance will become integrated, with no distinction between crypto and traditional assets. In this context, assets not on-chain will gradually be priced as inefficient assets, while on-chain assets will benefit from higher liquidity and accessibility, gaining more advantageous market pricing and broader application space.

Strategic Layout: Rebuilding Trading Entry Points and Liquidity Systems

Dr. Han stated that Gate’s strategic focus is not only on promoting the integration of CEX and DEX but also on creating a unified trading gateway connecting on-chain and traditional finance (TradFi). He pointed out that as RWA accelerates adoption and multi-asset on-chain, exchanges will evolve into multi-asset liquidity hubs. In this context, Gate is rapidly building an integrated trading system covering spot, perpetual contracts, and CFDs, planning to launch thousands of tokenized assets, bridging on-chain and off-chain assets. With 24/7 trading capabilities and more efficient asset access mechanisms, the platform will continuously enhance global liquidity and market depth, facilitating freer and more efficient value flow across different asset forms, and reshaping the new trading paradigm under the integration of crypto and traditional finance.

Future Outlook: Financial Integration and Global Value Network Evolution Driven by On-Chain Ecosystems

In his closing remarks, Dr. Han reaffirmed his confidence in long-term industry development. He stated that Gate will continue to strengthen multi-asset support capabilities, promoting more efficient connection and collaboration between traditional assets and digital assets within the same system. He emphasized that as asset forms and trading structures continue to evolve, Gate will adopt a more open architecture to support diverse assets, improving cross-market and cross-form liquidity efficiency, and building a more extensible value connection network within an ever-changing financial system.

About Gate

Founded in 2013, Gate’s founder and CEO is Dr. Han. It is one of the world’s leading cryptocurrency trading platforms. The platform serves over 52 million users and supports trading of more than 4,500 crypto assets. As an industry benchmark, Gate was the first to achieve 100% reserve proof, with an ecosystem covering Gate Wallet, Gate Ventures, Gate for AI, and other diverse services. For more information, please visit: Website |X |Telegram |LinkedIn |Instagram |YouTube

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