Co-founder and CCO Cynthia Wu of BIT Group Exclusive Interview | From Matrixport to BIT, the ambition behind the brand upgrade for the "next tenfold user"

Matrixport officially rebranded as BIT Group, with co-founder Cynthia Wu revealing the strategic ambitions behind the move in an interview.
(Background summary: Bitcoin trading volume plummets! Matrixport: The crypto market is experiencing a “volume-less bear market” test)
(Additional background: Matrixport analysis: Crypto options volume halved! No longer leading price movements, market shifts to caution)

Table of Contents

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• From Hong Kong Stock Exchange to Bitcoin Group, then to entrepreneurship
• Matrixport decided from Day 1 not to operate an exchange, a choice that influenced everything afterward
• Does the line of BIT serving the 3 billion people unable to fully access traditional financial services really exist?
• The truth behind Matrixport’s renaming to BIT? What does BIT mean?
• Why did Matrixport choose to upgrade to BIT now? Because BIT will become a multi-category financial services brand
• BIT licensing layout: Singapore, Hong Kong, Switzerland in three lines
• Two real cases showing how BIT embraces institutional entry? What are institutions布局ing?
• Cynthia’s self-assessment of Matrixport’s stage: 8 points, but the next phase is the real test for BIT
• What are BIT’s specific goals this year?

Cynthia Wu, co-founder and Chief Commercial Officer (CCO) of BIT Group, has a career spanning traditional finance and digital assets.

She previously handled commodity derivatives product design and institutional sales at the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, then served as Investment Director at Bitmain, and co-founded Matrixport in 2019.

Founded in 2019, Matrixport was co-established by Bitmain co-founder and former CEO Wu Jihan, as a crypto financial services platform focusing long-term on digital assets.

Over the past 7 years, Matrixport has built a diverse product matrix: institutional custody brand Cactus Custody, crypto asset management (including structured products), block trades, traditional assets (U.S. bonds, gold, silver, U.S. stocks), liquidity and financing services, etc. In Asia, it’s often regarded as one of the “representative institutional-grade crypto financial service groups,” navigating multiple market cycles. In 2024, Matrixport will officially upgrade its brand to “BIT,” but why switch from a 7-year-old brand now? What’s next for BIT’s business expansion? This interview will analyze all.

From Hong Kong Stock Exchange to Bitmain, then to entrepreneurship

Behind this brand upgrade, it’s worth reviewing Cynthia Wu’s three career phases.

Her first full-time role was as a spot trader for commodities at the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, where she traded commodities for over four years. Later, she joined HKEX in acquisitions and investments in commodities, as an “early member,” working on commodity derivatives product design and institutional sales for six years.

“Every path in life is meaningful; each experience deepens new understanding,” she says. What truly made her rethink the future of finance was her experience after entering the digital asset market in 2017. With deeper understanding of blockchain technology and digital assets, she gradually realized that digital assets are not just a new asset class; the underlying technology and market mechanisms could also bring new changes to financial infrastructure and market operations.

Cynthia mentions her motivation for joining the crypto industry: “At that time, I felt both pull and push factors, so the decision was not difficult.”

In 2018, Cynthia joined Bitmain’s investment division. At that time, digital asset financial services were still in early stages, with industry infrastructure mainly around trading, wallets, and mining. This experience made her realize there was huge development potential in digital asset financial services, laying the foundation for her later involvement in founding Matrixport.

Matrixport decided from Day 1 not to operate an exchange, a choice that influenced everything afterward

On the entrepreneurial journey, understanding why to start a business and what opportunities were seen is very important. Before deep diving into the BIT brand upgrade, it’s necessary to understand Matrixport’s original mission and background at founding. So Cynthia was asked:

“Which platform did you use to buy coins for the first time in 2017? What was your experience with that platform, and how did it influence Matrixport’s design?”

“I used a relatively early fiat-to-crypto platform. Back then, the industry was still in an early stage, and product experience and financial service capabilities had much room for improvement.”

More importantly, these experiences led her and her partners to clearly decide from Day 1:
“We didn’t want to operate an exchange: after all, there were already several mature exchanges in the Chinese community. We thought most people’s future access to crypto assets would be more like banking or brokerage—an app, an interface, where most financial needs could be met.”

She then explained her product architecture:
“The future of financial platforms is basically about having a place to store (custody), buy and sell (provide liquidity, OTC, instant exchange), manage assets (long-term yield), and possibly payments. We thought: isn’t this just ‘deposit, loan, exchange, invest’ in traditional finance?”

And from Day 1, she saw the long-term direction of RWA (Real-World Assets):
“Crypto-native assets are just the beginning. In the future, through tokenization, many off-chain assets can be on-chain. This app’s service won’t just be for crypto natives but can serve a broader range of assets.”

Does the line of BIT serving the 3 billion people unable to fully access traditional financial services really exist?

Statistics show about 3 billion people worldwide cannot fully enjoy “traditional financial services,” but now, services extended via blockchain—such as stablecoins, centralized or decentralized exchanges, RWA products—allow many people in underdeveloped financial regions to access financial products.

Did Matrixport consider serving this group from Day 1?

Cynthia responds: “The actual population served (with bank accounts, broker accounts) may only be 20-30%. The vast majority don’t have access. But with blockchain and all these applications, we can serve them at very low cost, providing equal-level financial services. That’s indeed one of our original intentions.”

The truth behind Matrixport’s renaming to BIT? What does BIT mean?

Everyone knows Matrixport as a one-stop crypto financial services brand. Since Matrixport has accumulated 7 years of brand recognition, why choose to rebrand as BIT now?

Cynthia first explains the meaning of the new brand name: “The new name is BIT, pronounced as the three letters directly.” The upgrade signifies that Matrixport Group is moving to the next stage in the market, and the simplest reason is:
“Matrixport’s name is hard to remember, while BIT is easy for users to recall quickly.”

What does the three-letter BIT stand for?

Cynthia answers: BIT can have many expansions:

• Bridge into Tomorrow — core slogan, building a bridge to the future
• Built It Together — building with clients and partners
• Build on Integrity and Trust — based on honesty, customer trust is the foundation of everything
• Better tool, built for modern investors — practical tools built on trust, heading into the future

Cynthia believes that with BIT, “there can be a thousand Hamlets in a thousand minds. We hope it remains an open question, co-shaped with the community, users, and partners. Maybe someday I can give you 100 meanings of BIT.”

Why did Matrixport choose to upgrade to BIT now? Because BIT will become a multi-category financial services brand

“After launching US stocks, we immediately upgraded the brand to BIT. Because we see US stocks as a very important asset class. This also means we’ve shifted from a ‘single asset class financial service brand’ to a ‘multi-asset class financial service brand.’”

The future goal is clear:
“If our original positioning was ‘your main wallet for crypto,’ now we want to be not only your main wallet for crypto but also for your important and major assets.”

Achieving this requires three levels of development: expanding the product lineup, continuously improving compliance and licensing, and enhancing brand reputation.
“Why do people do business with JPMorgan or DBS? Because of their strong brand effect. We need to build trust over time and through reputation. We hope this will happen through our continuous efforts.”

BIT licensing layout: Singapore, Hong Kong, Switzerland in three lines

To become a multi-category financial services brand, much more effort is needed in compliance than during the wild growth era of crypto. Cynthia shares BIT’s current licensing layout in Singapore, Hong Kong, and Switzerland.

Singapore: In 2025, Fly Wing Technologies Pte Ltd (“Fly Wing”) will obtain an MAS PSA (Payment Services Act) license under MPI (Major Payment Institution)—allowing Fly Wing to provide digital asset OTC trading services in Singapore. Pending MAS approval, Fly Wing plans to expand this license’s scope in 2027 to support custody and payment functions.

Hong Kong: Currently evaluating and planning to apply for licenses, with updates to be shared later.

Switzerland: Acquired Crypto Finance Asset Management fully a year and a half ago, renamed Matrixport Asset Management, regulated by FINMA. This year, plans to develop Cactus Custody (Matrixport’s institutional custody) capabilities in Switzerland, providing services through another SRO license.

Regarding BIT’s positioning, Cynthia states: “Our direction is to embrace compliance and regulation.”

How do two real cases show how BIT embraces institutional entry? What are institutions布局ing?

Institutional entry into the crypto market is no longer news, but in what form are institutions entering, why are they doing so, and what are they布局ing?

These are all points investors should pay attention to. Over the past two years, BIT has served many institutions, and Cynthia shares two examples to bring us closer to institutional布局ing.

Case 1: DAT companies (Digital Asset Treasury, similar to MicroStrategy’s listed company for Bitcoin accumulation)

“Last year, we served over 20 DAT companies, in the US, Asia, and Hong Kong.” These companies usually need three things from BIT:

• Custody: Balance sheets now hold various coins, requiring custody accounts.
• Algorithmic trading execution: “They might place multi-billion dollar orders, but don’t want to disturb the market—if a big order pushes the price up 5%, it becomes more expensive to buy. So they need smart order execution. We split their orders into very small chunks, like $50 each, continuously placing and canceling orders in the market, so the overall execution price fluctuates less than a thousandth.”
• Structured products: After accumulating coins, they want to increase their crypto-based holdings through structured products.

Case 2: Stablecoin payment companies (this year’s main focus)

“This year, stablecoins are a big year—US GENIUS Act passed last year, and implementation will bring licenses; Hong Kong also issued new stablecoin licenses. Different jurisdictions worldwide are pushing for compliant stablecoins.”

As a result, large amounts of new capital flow into the industry via compliant stablecoins; traditional payment companies are upgrading their rails—companies that previously relied on card or fiat cross-border payments now need stablecoin payment capabilities.
“This year, we served about 30-40 payment companies, mostly traditional finance.”

BIT’s service chain: fiat → stablecoin on-ramp, custody wallet, stablecoin → onshore fiat off-ramp (OTC), and asset management after fund accumulation.
“Our business covers all points from 1 to 4.”

Cynthia’s self-assessment of Matrixport’s stage: 8 points, but the next phase for BIT is the real test

After Matrixport’s brand upgrade to BIT Group, it also signifies that Matrixport has completed a phase. The next step is for BIT to take over. During this interview, Cynthia was asked how she rates Matrixport’s stage.

She scores herself: “8 points; looking back at Day 1’s vision, we’ve indeed become the ‘entry point into digital assets’ in the minds of Asian users. The product matrix is relatively complete, and we’ve been able to serve clients steadily through multiple crypto cycles, establishing trust and a long-term partnership platform.”

“But we don’t stop at this score. Brand upgrading is not the end but the starting point of the group’s new phase. After entering BIT, the group will further expand multi-asset services, and overall service capabilities must be comprehensively improved. Previously, research and analysis could clarify macro, momentum, and volume-price dynamics of crypto; now multi-asset clients ask: ‘You need to explain to me clearly about USD, gold, precious metals, and every Alpha opportunity.’”

“This is not just about research; it involves the capabilities of client managers, sales, customer service, marketing—all need to be upgraded from multiple dimensions. This is something we must continuously strengthen over the next five to ten years.”

What are BIT’s specific goals this year?

“This year, as long as people recognize the new us, know that BIT/Matrixport has upgraded, and see more products and services, and are willing to explore and try, I think that’s a success.”