The CEO of leading asset exchange KuCoin has written an open letter to the community, reflecting on the events of 2020 and outlining the company’s roadmap for the future.

Johnny Lyu did not shy away from discussing the security incident incurred by the platform in September, when $285 million of funds was stolen.

“Security has always been the sword of Damocles hanging over the head of crypto exchanges. When we encountered the breach, we acted quickly and transparently to protect all our users and partners,” wrote Lyu. “First, we gradually resumed the deposit and withdrawal services within a week, before fully restoring all features.

“Secondly, with the efforts of all parties in the industry, we cooperated with exchange and project partners to recover $222 million (78%), and through further cooperation with law enforcement and security institutions, we recovered another $17.45 million (6%).

“KuCoin and our insurance fund covered the remainder of around $45.55 million (16%). In the end, we ensured that no users sustained any loss in this incident, and we have since greatly strengthened our security level.”

Lyu also confirmed that KuCoin had gathered intelligence about the perpetrators, and indicated that investigations were ongoing.

Based in Seychelles, KuCoin is one of the industry’s most recognized exchanges, serving a global user base of over six million. The platform works closely with over 200 blockchain projects and facilitates hundreds of millions of dollars worth of daily transactions. Reflecting upon the addition of 39 fiat currencies in the past year, Lyu confirmed that KuCoin now supports 53 national currencies with plans to integrate emerging payment tools and popular gateways such as BTC Direct and Mobilum. The CEO also heralded impressive growth in trading volume.

“In 2020, our margin trading volume increased 217% year on year and has supported 33 tokens and 54 trading pairs. Since the start of the year, KuCoin Futures have achieved a stunningly rapid 420% increase in trading volume and a remarkable 670% growth in user numbers. It now supports 17 coins, including USDT-Margined and Coin-Margined Contracts, and Perpetual Futures and Quarterly Delivery Futures.

“Over the past year, the Pool-X staking platform – which supports over 50 projects – generated around $7 million of passive income for users.”

After reflecting on recent additions, including new DeFi and NFT trading boards, Lyu revealed that KuCoin will support the upcoming Polkadot parachain slots auction, enabling users to participate in the expanding Polkadot ecosystem. Outlining his vision for the next two years, the CEO stated his belief that bitcoin will overtake gold, that decentralized finance will continue to innovate, and evolve, and that NFT use will also increase.

“In general, the future strategy of KuCoin will be carried out by two priorities: ‘Find the next crypto gem’ and ‘Empowering KCS’. In order to achieve the former, our intercontinental blockchain project research team will keep up with industry trends to identify more promising projects. “

“In the KuCoin community, KCS is the bond that connects us all, and ideally, all KuCoin users will become members of the KCS community. To this end, we will shed light on KCS and encourage users to become token holders, to grow with us and share the benefits from our growth. Moving forward, we will build KCS as a killer product rather than a simple token.”

Decentralization was a dominant theme in Lyu’s letter, with the CEO restating his belief that decentralization and blockchain-powered transparency can facilitate the free flow of value around the world.

“After evaluating all existing technologies and public chain ecosystems, we are going to launch new KuCoin decentralized trading solutions on the basis of KuChain,” Lyu wrote. “One thing is for sure: KCS will be the underlying fuel whatever the solution actually is.”

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