The Pomp Podcast
#405: Hong Fang on Building A World Class Crypto Exchange
- Hong Fang's background growing up in China during economic liberalization and her subsequent career in Goldman Sachs investment banking, which shaped her perspective on free markets and capital allocation.
- Her conversion to Bitcoin in 2016 after realizing that traditional monetary policy assumptions are flawed and that Bitcoin represents a fundamentally different approach to incentive alignment and resource allocation.
- OKCoin's evolution from a Chinese yuan-to-crypto exchange to a U.S.-based fiat on/off-ramp platform focused on driving global adoption through regulatory compliance and accessible products.
- OKCoin's decision to fund Bitcoin core development despite no direct business benefit, viewing Bitcoin's protocol security and scalability as essential infrastructure for the entire crypto industry.
- The importance of balancing trading activity with long-term Bitcoin holding, and the broader trend toward democratization and individual empowerment across internet and blockchain-based platforms.
- Long-term vision of crypto adoption driven by protocol advancement, regulatory clarity, and real-world use cases beyond finance, with OKCoin positioned as a bridge between traditional finance and decentralized systems.