This week DeFiRev.com caught up with Johnny Lyu, the CEO and Cofounder of KuCoin.

First, I want you to take a moment and appreciate how far bitcoin and cryptocurrency has come this past decade. Did you ever believe you would see such growth, interest, and adoption in such a short period of time or has it completely surprised you?

JL: In early years, Bitcoin was popular only among a handful of computer geeks. As the price of Bitcoin has risen, more people are showing interest in it. The cryptocurrency has developed rapidly in the past 12 years, we’ve witnessed the most expensive pizza in the world, and we’ve also seen the price of bitcoin exceed $20,000 in 2017.

Recently, the number of people searching for Bitcoin on Google has reached a record high. And I am increasingly aware that the boundary between cryptocurrencies and traditional finance is blurring. As a practitioner in the blockchain industry, I am very proud about this because it represents a maturation of the crypto market. But I am not shocked, because this is an inevitable trend. The decentralization of crypto can make up for the shortcomings of the traditional financial system, which gives the crypto a bright future. And this is what we are working for at KuCoin. We are bullish on crypto in the long run.

At what point did it hit you that bitcoin was history in the making?

JL: For most people, perhaps they are more interested in price. When the price of Bitcoin is close to $20,000, they begin to believe in the value of Bitcoin. While for me, from the moment I entered the crypto industry, I realized that Bitcoin is making history.

How did you first get into bitcoin & cryptocurrencies?

JL: Before joining KuCoin, I used to work in the auto and luxury industries for many years. It is our founder Michael who led me to the crypto world. We are high school classmates. Michael used to be a Bitcoin miner and a user of Mt.Gox. He bought around 1,000 BTC at the price of $10. And all these BTC went away with Mt.Gox. Actually, that is one reason why we wanted to create an exchange that is super easy-to-use and secure, which is why we now have KuCoin.

Tell us more about your Lending Services!

JL: KuCoin Lending is a peer-to-peer platform where you can borrow major crypto at a reasonable rate from other users to do margin trading. Also, you can lend your spare assets to others and earn some interests.

KuCoin Lend has a few competitive advantages. First, it now supports 15 coins, including BTC, USDT, ETH, ADA, ATOM, XTZ and more. Second, it charges a very reasonable fee and it’s super flexible, you will be able to repay your borrowing anytime you want. Also, the platform has a comprehensive risk control system to ensure that the obligation for both borrowers and lenders can be performed as expected.

How tough is it to stay competitive in a landscape that is ever-evolving?

JL: Not an easy job to be honest. There’s a joke that most exchange owners can hardly fall asleep at night, worrying about both the fierce competition and the hackers.

The industry is changing rapidly. From ICO to IEO, from staking economy to DeFi, the trends change over time and only those make the most of each trend can survive.

One of the spirits at KuCoin is to “Embrace changes and act quickly.” That’s why we now have Spotlight (token sale), Pool-X (staking), KuChain (DeFi) and more interesting products coming up.

KuCoin recently added credit card support for 17 new fiat currencies, and have done a major push to Latin American and Eastern European customers. Tell me more about this.

JL: We are proud to say that KuCoin is one of the most global exchanges. And we’ve seen a big surge of traffic from Latin American countries lately. By simplifying the process of buying crypto with fiat, it will be easier for more people around the world to buy cryptocurrency, further promoting the mass adoption of blockchain and cryptocurrencies.

KuCoin has always been expanding its fiat gateways. In May of this year, KuCoin added support for 11 fiat including Hong Kong dollar, Singapore dollar and New Taiwan dollar to purchase crypto assets. In June, Kucoin added support for 17 fiat including Indian rupee and Argentine peso to purchase crypto assets. One week Later, we have reached a partnership with PayMIR, a well-known fiat on-ramp service provider in Russia. The partnership enabled new and existing KuCoin users worldwide to purchase crypto with Russian Ruble (RUB) using their credit and debit cards.

Now, We support 50 fiat currencies like EUR and AUD to buy crypto through Simplex, Banxa, PayMIR and our P2P Fiat Trade. By the end of this year, we plan to support more than 100 fiats.

DeFi has taken the world by storm this year. What most excites you the most about DeFi?

JL: I’m also excited about the recent hype for DeFi while probably my thoughts are not that in line with most others. I personally think currently most people overestimate the value of DeFi at the moment, DeFi does have great potential as it allows all people to join financial activities equally but presently it is not advanced enough to make that happen. Many investors who invest in DeFi have not used any DeFi service, which is not a good sign for the industry development.

But the good thing is that the attention as well as the funds along with it will also help DeFi projects to develop faster and better. At KuCoin, we are also supporting many potential DeFi projects like COMP, KNC, LUNA. And in our recent voting for listing program, we have also chosen two promising DeFi projects to be listed on KuCoin.

Tell our viewers about some of the new exciting promotions that you have currently.

JL: Recently, we have upgraded the “Gold Rush” Super Referral Program, hoping that crypto fans and enthusiasts can participate in our global brand promotion and user growth, which in turn will help to promote crypto to the masses.

Another thing we’ve been planning for a while is the 3rd anniversary of KuCoin! Stay tuned please.

What has been your favorite moment in crypto history thus far?

JL: KuCoin is committed to bringing all the hidden gems in the crypto to our users before anyone else. Actually each time we have a new project listing on KuCoin, it’s really memorable for me.

When you’re not working, what do you like to do for fun? What are your favorite hobbies? play game？

JL: Actually work takes up most of my time. And I suppose many people in the crypto world work almost 2/74 like me. When I have some free time I will go for table games like Texas Hold’em or digital games on PS4 and Switch.

What are a few of your favorite books (Can be fiction or nonfiction)? Favorite Films? What are some that have made a long-lasting impact on you?

JL: My favorite book is the Three-Body Problem by Liu Cixinl. From the point of view of the universe, humans are very small. Whenever I feel tired at work, I look at the world from a cosmic perspective, filter out the noise of the world, and find my own inner direction.

Is there anything you would like to share, unveil, or tease in terms of new features or releases for our viewers regarding KuCoin this year?

JL: We will have more updates about KuChain and Kratos (KuChain testnet) in the second half of the year. Kratos is co-ordinal with KuChain in concept, architecture and resource. Providing an experimental environment, Kratos encourages decentralized financial product pioneers to test and prove their innovative technologies and notions, as well as try out and contribute to KuChain’s various functionalities spanning governance, staking and validating.

Kratos builds a four-layer network based on the needs of DeFi and DEX, modularizes the protocol and functions, improves the ease of use of Kratos, reduces the threshold for developer participation, and solves the problems in the DeFi field. Kratos will bring a mass adoption of blockchain and new changes to the industry.

Will Users ever be able to earn interest if they hold KuCoin Shares?

JL: Sure, we now have a daily KCS bonus for all KCS holders. Also, on Pool-X, they could stake KCS to earn POL token. After the mainnet launch of KuChain. Staking KCS to earn KCS + POL will also be possible.

Tell our viewers more about your P2P Fiat Market.

JL: I recently figured out that P2P Fiat Trade is not that familiar to western investors, but actually it’s quite popular in Asia. Many users like it because it’s safe, fast and almost free. Our P2P Fiat Trade now supports USD, CAD, CNY, IDR, VND, INR and more fiats like AUD, EUR, THB are on the way. Also, supported payment methods include PayPal, wire transfer, Alipay, WeChat Pay, Interac e-Transfer and Payoneer.

What does a customer mean to you? How do you keep them happy?

JL: As the People’s Exchange, we always put customers first. We are the first exchange to support 10 different languages and 24/7 customer support. We now have nearly 20 global communities in which our users could get support in their local languages.

I think what an investor expects from an exchange is simple. Their funds are safe. They can trade easily and effectively, like no overloads when the market fluctuates dramatically. And when they need any help, they can find someone from the exchange to talk to ASAP. That’s it. And those are the things we are working on consistently. By improving our matching engine and trading system, working with partners like Chainalysis and OnChain, expanding our global communities, we are making KuCoin the real the People’s Exchange that you can rely on.

Where do you see KuCoin in the year 2025? What does that look like and what goals do you want to have accomplished?

JL: Our mission is to realize that everyone around the world can participate in financial activities equally. To this end, we need to further strengthen our product and conduct plenty of education regarding crypto and blockchain. By 2025, we hope KuCoin can be one of the most well-known fintech brands in the world.

What are you most excited about for the future of DeFi and where do you see the space in 5 years?

JL: It is sure that DeFi will gradually penetrate the market of CeFi, while this does not mean DeFi is perfect now. We still need to further improve the infrastructure, especially the efficiency and security of DeFi services. This is why we are building KuChain, which aims to provide a more user-friendly blockchain to empower financial innovations.

BONUS: What advice would you give our viewers regarding DeFi, business, motivation, or life in general?

JL:We believe that one day everyone will be with blockchain. The industry is still in an early stage, HODL and you won’t regret it.

Thanks for your insightful, thoughtful, and highly interesting answers Johnny! Until next time!

-The DeFiRev Team