Every crypto founder eventually faces the same dilemma. Utility products like payments, RWA, and stablecoins may onboard the next billion users. Speculation products like perps, prediction markets, and memes still generate the most revenue, liquidity, and attention. The market says it wants utility, but capital still reward speculation. If you were building today, which one would you follow?

Today is my last day at @MEXC . This is not me leaving crypto. Many people have recently left the industry, but I’m not going anywhere. It’s true that the easy narratives are gone and many have stopped believing. Good, that just means the tourists have left. I believe some of the biggest opportunities are being created right now. The problems are still here, and blockchain is more relevant than ever if we want to solve real issues. Increasingly, I’ve felt that the best way for me to contribute is by building once again. As CSO of MEXC, I wore many hats across partnerships, investments, and strategic initiatives. Out of everything, the one thing I’m most proud of is pushing MEXC to become more transparent and more user-centric. I’m grateful to the team who supported me in making those achievements possible. That experience reminded me where I do my best work: close to the problem, close to the product, and most importantly, close to users. Time to go back to founder mode. More soon.

Woke up this morning to news of a helicopter crash near Mount Aso in Japan. Terrifying part: I was on that exact helicopter just over 10 days ago. You never know whether tomorrow or an accident comes first. Life is short. Enjoy it while you can. 🙏

This is indeed a problem in our industry, where there are too few women and too many events. But I rarely run into situations that feel like casual-sex vibes. Here are a few things I do that might help: > A firm handshake, a simple and direct self-introduction. I make sure people see right away that I’m not someone to mess with. I usually keep a serious expression, very much in “work mode,” so everyone understands I’m here for business, not anything else. I leave zero room for imagination. > And walk away quickly when needed. The only time I didn’t follow my usual approach and was too friendly, someone who didn’t know who I was started flirting. They claimed they were male models (obviously they were founders of some asset-management firm), then started saying sleazy things and asked if I was a model too. I told them I was a CEO, wished them good luck finding a model here, and immediately walked off without giving them a single extra second.

With our new customer service guidelines and COO now fully onboarded, I’ll be returning to my core CSO priorities around strategic partnerships and investments. Community and user inquiries will be managed by our dedicated customer support team going forward. If you’re exploring partnership opportunities with MEXC, feel free to reach out.

Being a spokesperson isn’t about becoming a trophy, a bulletin board or a puppet. It’s about actually listening, actually solving user problems, telling the truth, and showing up with real-time updates, good or bad, without losing your own voice.

I’ve actually been buying and holding Hype and Aster on MEXC for a while. Currently CEXs are trying to become more decentralized, and DEXs are trying to offer CEX-level product experience. The future is one where users no longer need to tell the difference between a CEX and a DEX. They should be able to enjoy the best of both worlds, deep liquidity, self-custody, smooth UX, efficient customer support, and everything else that makes trading seamless.