Bitget CEO Gracy Chen: From TV host to crypto empress

Career foundations

Gracy Chen hasn’t always been the CEO of one of the world’s largest crypto exchanges, but the foundations of her career – long before Gracy Chen Bitget became a widely recognized pairing in the industry – were visible early on.

Born in Southwest China, Chen was raised by a single mother with strong business ambition. Whether this upbringing directly influenced her later decision to pursue higher education abroad is unclear, but her academic record is precisely the opposite. She earned a Bachelor of Science in Applied Mathematics from the National University of Singapore, establishing a strong analytical base from the outset.

Between 2014 and 2015, Chen worked as a financial TV host, interviewing tech founders, business executives, and industry leaders. During this period, she developed a public-facing profile centered on explaining complex financial and technological topics to broad audiences. Her interviewees included venture capitalist Tim Draper, a well-known supporter of Bitcoin and blockchain innovation, as well as futurist Ray Kurzweil, a prominent thinker on long-term technological change. By the time blockchain began gaining mainstream attention, Chen was positioned not as a technologist, but as a business- and communications-oriented operator.

She later completed a Master of Business Administration (MBA) at the MIT Sloan School of Management, where her engagement with blockchain became more direct. It was at MIT Sloan that Chen first became actively involved in the school’s blockchain community.

In 2024, she served as Co-President of the MIT Sloan Blockchain Club, alongside fellow student Hehe (Hannah) S. In that role, she led initiatives such as recruiting students for leadership positions and organizing blockchain-focused events. At MIT Sloan, Chen moved from observing blockchain as a media topic to working with it hands-on – organizing events, recruiting peers, and helping turn academic interest into real projects.

Entering the blockchain industry

Bitget CEO Gracy Chen’s foray into the crypto space did not begin with trading.

She has described her motivation for entering Web3 as stemming from the industry’s need for clearer communication, stronger trust frameworks, and global coordination. Reflecting on that transition, Chen once said:

My entry into crypto wasn’t planned. During my time as a TV host, I had conversations with prominent industry leaders like Tim Draper, which sparked my curiosity about blockchain technology.

Initially, Chen contributed to projects that required clear communication of complex concepts, strategic positioning, and coordination across regions and cultures. These early efforts helped bridge the gap between highly technical blockchain products and mainstream users.

She came to see crypto as an industry where clarity mattered as much as technology – and where poor communication could destroy trust overnight. This perspective shaped her move into senior leadership roles, where she focused on scaling operations, strengthening trust, and guiding companies through rapid growth in a still-evolving regulatory landscape.

Leadership at Bitget 

Gracy Chen joined Bitget in 2022, initially taking on the role of Managing Director, where she led global growth strategy and international expansion. Within just two years, she was appointed Chief Executive Officer, succeeding Sandra Lou.

From the outset, Chen focused less on headlines and more on execution – how teams were structured, how decisions were made, and how Bitget could scale without repeating the mistakes that had damaged other exchanges. Her tenure has coincided with a period of heightened scrutiny for centralized exchanges, forcing Bitget – as with much of the industry – to balance growth ambitions with credibility and resilience.

Chen made it clear that structure and accountability across global teams were more important to her than framing Bitget purely as a high-risk trading venue. As a result, she consistently pushed a narrative centered on user protection, transparency, and long-term sustainability, aligning the company with maturing expectations around crypto platforms.

Despite Gracy Chen’s age, she found herself leading Bitget at a moment when credibility – rather than growth alone – had become the industry’s main currency. Under her direction, Bitget expanded its international footprint while strengthening internal processes, including proof-of-reserves disclosures, operational safeguards, and closer alignment between product, marketing, and compliance teams. The exchange also moved decisively beyond its early derivatives-focused identity.

Pressure moments & trade-offs

Chen’s rise inside Bitget coincided with one of the most fragile periods in the history of centralized crypto exchanges. The collapse of major industry players reshaped public trust almost overnight, forcing exchange leaders to make decisions under intense scrutiny. 

For Chen, this meant trade-offs rather than easy wins. Expanding aggressively risked overstretching internal controls, while slowing down carried the danger of losing relevance in a fiercely competitive market. According to people familiar with Bitget’s operations, internal discussions increasingly centered on process, transparency, and how much growth the platform could responsibly absorb at each stage. 

Rather than positioning Bitget as immune to industry-wide failures, Chen leaned into caution – supporting proof-of-reserves disclosures, tightening operational oversight, and dialing back messaging that could be interpreted as speculative hype. These choices were not without cost, but they reflected a leadership style shaped by the lessons of recent market crises rather than by short-term momentum.

Bitget’s growth & key milestones

If there is one consistent theme in Chen’s leadership, it is her ability to manage a large exchange during a period of increasing pressure to demonstrate both scale and credibility.

Over a relatively short period, Bitget expanded its spot trading offering, rolled out a more accessible Pro/Spot interface, and invested in features aimed at retail users, including copy trading. These moves broadened Bitget’s audience and helped reposition it as a multi-product platform, rather than a single-niche venue.

A natural communicator, Chen also ensured that Bitget gained significant public visibility through high-profile collaborations. The most notable was its partnership with Lionel Messi, one of the most celebrated footballers in history and captain of Argentina’s national team. In October 2022, Bitget announced Messi as its global ambassador, with the stated goal of engaging football fans and introducing them to Web3, trading, and digital assets, linking the platform’s messaging to themes of perseverance and progress closely associated with Messi’s career and even travelled to Doha, Qatar for the World Cup 2022, the championship that Argentina won.

The Bitget-Messi collaboration proved to be long-term. In early 2024, Bitget extended the partnership with a new brand film under the #MakeItCount theme, reinforcing shared values of determination and incremental improvement. The campaign included community activities, on-platform competitions, and expanded engagement in markets where both football and crypto resonate strongly.

Other key milestones under Chen’s leadership include:

• The introduction of proof-of-reserves disclosures
• The launch of services such as Bitget Wallet and Bitget Card, alongside stronger on-chain integrations
• Strengthening internal safeguards
• Clearer public communication during periods of market volatility
• Continued international expansion while remaining outside the U.S. market.  Chen’s strategies expanded Bitget’s presence in emerging markets like LATAM, Southeast Asia, and Africa

Despite a handful of achievements, Gracy Chen net worth remains undisclosed. The industry experts believe that it may well be in the range of $5 million to $20 million.

Commitment to education & diversity

Education has long been a central theme in Bitget CEO Chen’s leadership, an emphasis that carries particular weight in an industry often criticized for opacity and limited participation.

Her own career path reflects this focus, as do the initiatives she has supported to lower knowledge barriers, including community programs, industry discussions, and educational outreach centered on blockchain fundamentals, risk awareness, and responsible participation. The underlying goal has been consistent: to broaden access and move crypto beyond an insiders-only audience.

Precisely because of this Chen became a columnist for major industry publications and a member of the Forbes Business Council, where she contributes thought leadership on blockchain innovation and the future of the digital economy.

Diversity has also been a recurring theme in Chen’s public leadership. As one of the more visible female executives in a male-dominated industry, she has repeatedly highlighted the need for greater gender and cultural representation in crypto leadership and teams. Under her leadership, diversity has been treated less as a branding exercise and more as an operational consideration – shaping hiring practices, global team composition, and Bitget’s international outlook.

“At Bitget, we believe innovation thrives when teams represent diverse perspectives, experiences, and backgrounds,” Chen said at a Web3 Diversity Career Session at HKUST.

She added later:

Most importantly, we believe in the multiplier effect – additional female leadership brings a positive, quantifiable increase in performance. Supporting diversity and inclusion should not be siloed within Human Resources; it should be a priority at the highest levels of an organization.

For an industry still searching for credible leadership, Chen’s trajectory – from explaining markets on television to running a global exchange – offers a rare combination of visibility, discipline, and restraint.