In Conversation with MEXC CEO Vugar Usi: How “Zero Fees” and “Trading Everything” Are Rewriting the Exchange Playbook

Compiled by: momo, ChainCatcher Guest: Vugar Usi, MEXC CEO

At Coinfest Asia 2026 in Bali this August, on the awards stage of the Alpha Arena S03 trading competition, Vugar Usi, the newly appointed CEO of MEXC, personally handed the championship trophy to a Japanese trader. Below the stage stood traders and over ten thousand spectators from 12 countries.

Away from the spotlight, however, the recently appointed CEO was grappling with a more fundamental question: who is an exchange really built for?

In April 2026, MEXC celebrated its eighth anniversary. It was at this milestone that the platform officially announced the appointment of Vugar Usi as its new CEO, alongside a brand revamp centered on "zero fees, unlimited opportunities."

From Facebook, Sony, and Bain to Bitget, Usi's career spans internet giants, traditional consulting, and crypto exchanges. As COO of Bitget, he helped grow the platform's user base from 20 million to 120 million, propelling it into the ranks of the world's top exchanges. Yet it was precisely this experience that led him to ask: with roughly 80% of trading volume on leading platforms coming from institutions and product logic built around "whales" — is that really all there is to this industry?

This year, he chose a different path by joining MEXC. The veteran exchange's positioning resonated with him instantly: serving retail investors (the Underdogs), bringing the barrier to entry down to zero with zero fees, making "trade everything" a reality, and integrating TradFi and the crypto world into a single super platform.

On-site at Coinfest Asia 2026, Vugar Usi sat down with ChainCatcher for an exclusive interview, sharing what drove him to join MEXC, the path to TradFi-crypto integration, the business logic behind zero fees, and his outlook on the industry's landscape over the next three years.

I. After Joining MEXC, What Comes First?

1. ChainCatcher: You worked at global giants like Facebook and Sony. What drew you into crypto? And after leaving Bitget, why MEXC? What impressed you most about the platform?

Vugar Usi: I come from traditional finance. I worked at Bain and at internet giants like Facebook. I entered crypto because I saw a clear trend: this industry evolves incredibly fast, and traditional finance is merging with the digital world.

MEXC is a product of exactly that merger. We now offer more traditional financial assets than crypto assets: beyond 3,000-plus digital assets, there are more than 7,000 stocks, plus commodities and precious metals. I want to bring the discipline, compliance and regulatory mindset of traditional finance into this industry, so that MEXC grows fast and grows sustainably.

As for why I left Bitget, the answer is straightforward. I served as COO there, and during my tenure users grew from 20 million to 120 million, making the platform the third largest globally.

Yet despite the results, I kept asking myself one question: who do exchanges actually create opportunities for? The more you look at the top exchanges, the more you see that about 80% of their volume comes from institutions. In other words, they are “built for institutions.” MEXC is different: our main customers are the underdogs, ordinary investors. That is why I chose MEXC, and it is also where our brand upgrade to “the gateway to infinite opportunities” comes from. Zero fees bring the barrier down to zero, putting these opportunities genuinely within reach of ordinary people.

2. ChainCatcher: Taking over as CEO at MEXC's eighth anniversary is a significant milestone. What are the core priorities for MEXC's next phase?

Vugar Usi: We are building MEXC into a “life on chain” platform. Every life scenario that can move on-chain will move on-chain in the future.

People are probably familiar with our list-first approach and zero fees, but MEXC is no longer just a crypto exchange. Through tokenized stocks, commodities and other real-world assets, we connect traditional finance with the decentralized digital world while keeping our crypto-native DNA.

On the savings side, we have added products with protected principal, lower risk and a focus on long-term wealth accumulation, offering a solid annual percentage yield, the kind of returns that are almost a no-brainer.

On the spending side, the MEXC Card closes the loop from earning, trading, saving and investing to spending. It offers equally solid cashback, because we have cut out layers of middlemen and can return more value to users.

Last year, zero fees saved our users about 1.1 billion US dollars in trading fees, roughly 320 dollars per person on average, with some large traders saving seven or eight million dollars. We do not run flashy campaigns or splash out on huge sponsorships; instead, we give the opportunities and the benefits back to our users, and we are making that spirit of giving back part of this company's DNA.

3. ChainCatcher: You keep emphasizing the brand philosophy of “Infinite Opportunities.” What does it actually mean?

Vugar Usi: “Infinite opportunities” grew out of my thinking after reading Simon Sinek's The Infinite Game. Life is not a zero-sum game. You do not have to lose for me to win; we can win together. The more people join in, the bigger the whole pie becomes, and the larger everyone's share.

For MEXC, every user's journey is unique. We want everyone who comes to the platform to find the opportunities that suit them best, make money and improve their lives. That is what “infinite opportunities” means.

II. In the TradFi-Crypto Convergence Race, What Is MEXC's Differentiated Path?

4. ChainCatcher: We see crypto exchanges and traditional brokers moving into each other's businesses. How do you view the opportunities and challenges of this cross-industry convergence?

Vugar Usi: The value of convergence is that once all assets sit in one super platform, users' money moves faster and loses less along the way. In the traditional model, a single trade passes through banks, wealth advisors, brokers and other layers of intermediaries, and every layer takes a cut. Today on MEXC, you can trade tokenized stocks and even real stocks at 1:1, exactly the same way as someone in the United States, regardless of where you live or what currency you hold, and it settles in seconds instead of days or weeks.

That is why I say this may be a bear market, but it is the “best bear market.” Crypto is not as loud as it once was, yet traders are still trading gold, silver, oil and stocks, all real-world assets. Money will flow back into crypto quickly and start a new cycle. When that happens, in a single day you could rebalance into Bitcoin in the morning, buy a hot semiconductor stock at noon, and hedge with gold in the evening, things that two years ago took a week or even ten days. The speed of money movement, combined with zero fees, creates an environment for building wealth, and AI is making all of it even faster.

5. ChainCatcher: Amid the TradFi-crypto convergence wave, how does MEXC plan to stand out? What is your differentiated route compared with peers?

Vugar Usi: Even before joining MEXC, I was a MEXC user myself. Using it over the long term, I came to understand why users choose it and why they cannot leave it.

The first reason is list-first. MEXC always brings quality projects to users first, often two or three weeks and sometimes a month ahead of other exchanges, which makes it a great place to discover new opportunities. Today that goes beyond digital assets to stocks as well: we were the first platform in the world to list SpaceX share units, and when new AI IPOs appear, we intend to be at the frontier again.

The second reason is zero fees. Fees are a barrier to entry. They make trading complicated and expensive; sometimes a trade is profitable on paper, yet high fees still mean you make no money over the long run. Zero fees let users participate at the lowest possible cost, and it is one of the biggest equalizers in this industry.

There is also a bigger reason: we build the platform before users need it. If the NYSE and Nasdaq really do move to 24/7 trading someday, we already are a 24/7 market, and real stocks can already be traded here at any time. We do not chase trends; we build ahead of time what you may need in the future.

6. ChainCatcher: Zero fees are a key draw for users. Strategically, how does MEXC sustain a viable business model and capture long-term value under this zero-fee policy?

Vugar Usi: MEXC takes a different route: no blockbuster sponsorships. We will not spend 100 million dollars sponsoring Formula 1, or tens of millions on La Liga or football superstars; we give that money back to the community through zero fees.

Last year we saved users about 1.1 billion dollars. That money could have been our marketing budget, but the community saw the value, which is why they keep using MEXC. Half-jokingly, I sometimes wish I were MEXC's CMO rather than its CEO, just to run these give-back campaigns.

Today, almost our entire spot market is zero-fee; among the 3,000-plus futures and digital asset pairs, about 200 carry zero fees; and all stock and tokenized stock products are zero-fee as well. That makes us one of the best places to access new experiences and new exposure at the lowest cost.

7. ChainCatcher: MEXC is prioritizing stocks, ETFs and commodities. How will that reshape your user acquisition strategy?

Vugar Usi: Two tracks. One is crypto natives: for Gen Z and millennials, the first investment is often a crypto asset. We used to be trapped inside the crypto cycle, chasing Bitcoin's swings, piling into altcoins and memes. Thanks to tokenization, we can now see wider: where the world's money is flowing, whether to allocate to stocks, whether to try new investment instruments.

That helps users diversify, and it takes us beyond a single cycle. The opportunities in front of us are more plentiful than ever.

The other track is people who previously invested through banks and never had access to new opportunities. Stocks and tokenization gave them their first real sense of trust in this market. We are seeing more and more traditional institutions and family offices come in, not chasing tenfold or twentyfold returns, but asking: I already invest in stocks, so how do I hedge my S&P 500 exposure with Bitcoin and reduce risk? When these two groups of users meet on the same platform, what they bring is not just products, but liquidity and capital inflows. That is the next-generation financial super platform we are building.

III. How Will the Exchange Landscape Evolve Over the Next Three Years?

8. ChainCatcher: MEXC is evolving from a trading platform into a “trusted financial gateway.” Among security, compliance, transparency and liquidity, which is your top priority for the coming year, and why?

Vugar Usi: Transparency first. Since taking office last November, we have kept publishing proof of reserves with third-party institutions, and we were the second exchange in the world to open its doors to independent verification. We honor our 1:1 reserve commitment, with reserve ratios of roughly 160% for Bitcoin and Ethereum and around 130% for stablecoins.

Then security. MEXC has never had a security incident in its history, but to become a top-three global exchange and deliver first-class service, you have to keep investing in user security. Our user security fund started at 100 million dollars and stayed at that level for years; we have since committed to expanding it to 500 million dollars over the next two years, and have already added 1,000 BTC as part of this expansion, making it one of the largest user security funds in the world. On top of that, we have a 770-million-dollar contract insurance fund.

I believe that before long, when people think of MEXC, they will not even stop to wonder whether it is safe or transparent; that will be self-evident. What sets us apart will be zero fees, opportunity, user experience and continuous innovation, all underpinned by trust and security.

9. ChainCatcher: MEXC now serves more than 170 markets. Which regions are driving growth, and where are you placing your bets for the next wave of expansion?

Vugar Usi: Southeast Asia is our stronghold, and we intend to keep leading there. Turkiye, Eastern Europe and the Middle East have grown fast over the past two or three years, and we have invested heavily in them.

Since taking office, I have paid particular attention to Latin America and Africa, treating them as frontier markets for growth. Their potential is far from fully tapped, and we can offer the complete product line, from trading and savings to card-based investing and spending, keep onboarding more users. That is the focus of the next phase.

10. ChainCatcher: Looking ahead three years, do you think the exchange landscape will consolidate further around giants like Binance and Coinbase, or become multipolar? And is there one variable most likely to disrupt the picture?

Vugar Usi: My view is that the future will no longer be exchange versus exchange, not a one-on-one between Coinbase and Binance. Robinhood is coming in, Revolut is coming in, and Monzo and all kinds of neobanks and trading platforms are coming in. Thanks to banking-as-a-service and all sorts of integrations and partnerships, competition will increasingly be about connectivity, brand and trust, and about whether you can deliver these services tomorrow, not someday.

Maybe Robinhood becomes your largest digital asset provider, maybe Revolut turns from a bank into a trading platform, and today's largest exchanges may well become your future mortgage provider or banking service.

But however the landscape evolves, super platforms will give users better, more seamless choices. Just as you open Grab or Uber depending on where you are when hailing a ride, we will see financial products that integrate every part of life, letting users solve their problems seamlessly in one place.