Coinone recently posted an announcement about making a fresh start with OKX. OKX had previously made a strategic investment in Coinone.

Personally, of the global CEXs, including Binance, Bybit and Bitget, OKX is the one I have the highest hopes for.
>> I am recording a YouTube video on this and plan to release it soon.

I think you can get some sense of where a company is headed by looking at its leader's face and business acumen.

What impresses me most about OKX founder and CEO Star Xu is his clear vision and his ability to turn it into actual business expansion.

*OKX's recent moves, in particular, suggest that it is working to build the financial infrastructure of the future, beyond simply increasing trading volume.

🔎 OKX's expansion strategy

1️⃣ X Layer and Exchange OS
This is the part I am most excited about.

• OKX operates its own L2, X Layer. It recently announced Exchange OS, which lets anyone build spot, perpetual futures and prediction markets, and is rolling it out in stages.

• The ambition goes beyond building its own chain: it wants other companies to be able to run trading markets using OKX's infrastructure.

• $OKB serves as X Layer's gas token and as a staking asset for launching markets.

2️⃣ Toward a comprehensive financial platform
• Through OKX Money, it is expanding into stablecoin savings, transfers and payments.

• Ultimately, it aims to attract everyday financial consumers as well as crypto traders.

3️⃣ Working with traditional financial institutions
• ICE, the parent company of the New York Stock Exchange, along with Circle, Ripple and Standard Chartered's SC Ventures, have made strategic investments in OKX.

• The latest collaboration involving Coinone and Korea Investment & Securities can also be understood as an extension of this expansion strategy.

✍️ My personal thoughts

• Binance already has an enormous user base and deep liquidity, while Coinbase is expanding onchain finance around Base and USDC.

• OKX, meanwhile, is adding to its existing CEX business by building infrastructure that other exchanges and financial companies can use.

• Of course, X Layer is still smaller than Base or BNB Chain, and Exchange OS still needs to prove itself in practice. Even so, Star Xu's long-term vision and execution so far give me reason to be optimistic.

📈 Ultimately, OKX is aiming to build a foundation on which other companies can run financial services, beyond increasing its own share of the exchange market.

A company focused only on competing as an exchange and one building the infrastructure that exchanges use inevitably have different scope for expansion.

We still need to see whether this strategy actually succeeds, but I am personally very excited to see what kind of company OKX grows into!