OKX exec says KYC will ‘raise the bar’, real capital to crypto: Blockchain Economy Dubai 2023

Some areas of the crypto space focus on privacy and anonymity, while others focus on raising the bar in the space and bringing more capital to traditional players and the world of digital assets.

At the recent Blockchain Economy Summit in Dubai, Cointelegraph spoke with Lennix Lai, Global Chief Commercial Officer at crypto exchange OKX. During the interview, the executive discussed a number of topics including the differences between traditional finance and crypto, how OKX handled the exchange storm by implementing mandatory Know Your Customer (KYC) checks, and how the exchange is navigating the rapidly changing regulatory landscape.

Lai and Scientelegraph's Ezra Regera at the Blockchain Economy Summit in Dubai. Source: Joanna Alhambra

According to him, crypto is “more interesting” than traditional finance. Lai, who used to work in traditional companies, believes that there are many processes that are ineffective in the old world of finance. He explained.

“Innovating with traditional finance is relatively difficult. In crypto, it is much better and more efficient. And it is very cheap in terms of price. So, you can see that the pace is much faster, and now we can serve a larger audience than traditional finance.

When problems arose, the executive said, there was a lot of internal and external conflict before fixing the problems in traditional finance, even when the solutions were clear. In addition, there are regulatory aspects that must be considered before developing a solution.

When it comes to crypto, regulators share almost the same guidelines and expectations as they share the goal of protecting consumers, Lai told Cointelegraph. According to the executive, navigating different regulations from different countries around the world requires extensive research and mapping of different requirements.

While delivering his keynote address at the Blockchain Economy Summit Dubai event. Source: Cointelegraph

“Different level of interest, different level of control. But I think all supervisors share the same guidelines and expectations. For example, they want to protect the customer, monitor the business, want to segment the customer.

Related: How OKX Convinced F1 Star Daniel Ricciardo That Crypto Promotion Is Safe

Asked about OKX following the trend of bringing mandatory KYC to exchanges, Lai said there is a need to “raise the bar” in crypto similar to traditional finance. According to the executive, this brings him to the place as “the real capital and the main money”. He explained.

That's how we grow the real market, because if they can't meet your compliance requirements or somehow can't speak the same language as traditional finance, they can't invest or bring in capital, even if they're interested, despite our innovation. He said.

According to Lai, KYC is the first step and the first step to embrace other players in the financial world in an attempt to raise the level of compliance in the space.

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