• OKEx processed $21 trillion in the past year from 25 billion trades in 2021 and listed 220 new cryptocurrency trading pairs.
• CEO Jay Hao says the cryptocurrency market will see a bull run in the second quarter of 2022 as regulations take root.

2021 was a big year for cryptocurrencies as the market capitalization shot up to $3 trillion and most tokens hit new all-time highs. This price rise, and the surge in adoption, augured quite well for exchanges, and one of the world’s largest has revealed just how good a year it was. OKEx processed $21 trillion worth of trades from 25 billion trades in 2021.

In a blog post, the exchange revealed that its user base grew to 20 million users across over 100 regions globally. With $21 trillion processed, OKEx was among the world’s largest exchanges in 2021. It also added 220 new trading pairs across last year.

The exchange launched a number of new features and integrations, “ranging from industry-leading improvements such as our systems and a mode to numerous third-party integrations, including with Lightning Network, Polygon and Algorand.”

And as with any other cryptocurrency company, OKEx took a dive into the world of DeFI, launching a dedicated DeFi mode on its web and app. OKEx DeFi includes a marketplace for minting and trading NFTs. It also comes with a blockchain gaming center, yet another sector that has seen accelerated growth in 2021.

OKEx DeFi was also one of the main sponsors of DCentral Miami, an event that took place a month ago, combining NFTs and DeFi.

In the U.S, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) went after Coinbase after it attempted to launch a lending product. OKEx had no such issues, with its OKEx Earn product seeing $5.1 billion staked and locked by users across 2021. It paid over $300 million in passive income to its users.

Big as 2021 was, CEO Jay Hao believes that this year will be even bigger. He pointed out that this year will see sustained growth as cryptocurrencies continue to make their way into the mainstream financial circles.

He commented:

A homogeneous regulatory framework for the global crypto industry is the need of the hour. We strongly support that countries around the world should adhere to FATF norms to ensure a transparent and investor-friendly crypto ecosystem.

While DeFi and NFTs will still dominate the market, Hao believes that stablecoins will also see explosive growth.

“They will not only act as a store value but will serve as an important asset to beat inflation. We will see the rise of stablecoins with more crypto companies launching their stablecoins to provide much-needed diversification to investors,” he commented.

OKEx was founded in 2017 and within a year, it shot up to global domination, spurred by its extensive listing of trading pairs. In 2018, it was the world’s largest exchange by turnover before Binance eventually shot up to dominate the market. Incorporated in Seychelles, OKEx is owned by the same holding company that operates OkCoin exchange.