Dear All,

As I sat at my desk, going through all the well-wishes from OceanExers, I realized that the first anniversary of OceanEx is just around the corner. Amazingly, I recall the launch of OceanEx Beta like it happened just yesterday, but I also feel that it’s been years since the launch, as we’ve overcome so many challenges along the way. Over this period, I’ve made some great new friends both in the industry and the community, and I’ve come to love the way passing time encourages us to evolve.

A while ago, my team asked if we should have a slogan showing the promising future of OceanEx. After giving it much thought, I decided to bring back one from an earlier time — BUY THE FUTURE. Yes, this was the previous slogan I had for BitOcean ATMs back in 2013. And yes, I still advocate strongly for my faith in Bitcoin and the blockchain industry as a whole (I was an early bitcoin miner for those who don’t know my story). With my belief in what the evolutionary future of crypto and blockchain shall bring, we, the whole OceanEx team, will work hard to connect the global crypto community with the very best trading experience possible.

With the hundreds of hours of effort we have put towards building up and optimizing the product, we have been able to present the community with a comprehensive digital asset trading ecosystem. This includes stable crypto-to-crypto trading, a legitimate fiat gateway, and in early December, the launch of OceanEx’s future trading (now you get another idea of why I chose to bring back the slogan).

Though it is the most rapidly changing industry, there is one thing that can never be forgotten — being user value-driven. I set it as the top core value within OceanEx and I want to drill this culture into each team member working for us. In our meeting room, there is always an empty chair, representing you, the user. No matter what topic we discuss, what decision we make, we must make our users the first priority.

Our goal for the past year was to build a legit, secure, professional, and user-friendly exchange. I feel we have taken great steps and I’m proud of what we’ve accomplished. Still, there is much room for us to improve. At certain points, the pressure of time felt overwhelming, but looking back, it was the passing time that made the experience so much more rewarding. Now that we are moving on to our second year, we are certain we will be able to bring our users even more innovative and professional financial products.

I have no doubt that 2020 will be an exciting year. Since we want to connect people with the digital asset world, soon we are going to launch an upgraded referral program and social trading feature. We will also bring exclusive trading insights backed by AI to users via an interactive dashboard next year. These are just a few of the new features we will add, as we start planning a calendar full of activities and goals aimed at building stronger ties with our constantly growing user-base.

The truth is, in the blockchain industry, time never stops. Running an exchange is a 24/7 task with benchmarks for success that are constantly moving further into the future. I’ve come to appreciate the expectations that time sets for us, so rather than saying congrats and patting ourselves on the back for the fruitful year we just achieved, let’s celebrate the coming year of exciting challenges — as we dig our heels into another starting point. And I can’t wait to share this journey with our vast community of users, partners and friends. Will you be there with us?

The best is yet to come. Stay humble, much respect.

Xiaoning Nan,

Two days before OceanEx’s 1st anniversary