Gracy Chen, managing director of Bitget, talks about her career journey and why supporting women is vital

Gracy Chen became managing director of Bitget because she asked for the role. This simple fact marks her out as a woman of integrity and confidence. She knew she could do the job, simples. This confidence is what she wants to inspire in others and today we spoke about her career to date and how she is actively helping other women in this space.

Ten years ago, Chen graduated in Applied Mathematics in Singapore but took a sideways move into a career as a TV anchor where she found herself interviewing celebrities such as Tom Hiddleson and Michelle Yeoh. She found the work interesting but not satisfying. At the same time, a friend told her to check out Bitcoin, which was about $300 at the time.

Why supporting women is vital, Gracy Chen, Bitget

“I wanted to get my hands dirty and make an impact, so I switched to the role as a co founder of a Fintech company in 2015, using my journalism. It was a switch from interviewing people to becoming the subject of interviews but I was in my true milieu.”

That business offered tax and salary settlement for freelancers in China and now has revenues of $8 billion, but emerging tech called and Chen decided to set up her own VR firm, although she admits she was probably too soon. Her interest in Bitcoin continued under the hood and she invested significantly in Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. In that role as an investor, one of her portfolio companies which later became Bitget, was looking for a CMO.

“I thought to myself, what about me? And so I put my name forward.”

The founders quickly decided that marketing was too limited for Chen and promoted her to managing director where marketing reported into her. Their faith was quickly rewarded as Chen grew the exchange to become the fifth largest in the world, and the employee count went from 200 people to 1500. But it’s team work according to Chen.

“We did a couple of things well which contributed to our growth and success. In the previous bear market, we used our time to build. We held the course; we knew how to pace ourselves.”

Chen was interviewed at that time by a tier 1 crypto media platform and asked what she thought of the bear market.

“I keep on saying that a bear market is a golden window for growth. Assets are cheaper. The real builders who stick out a bear market also want to make an impact.”

Chen also points out that Bitget builds products that people want and they place a huge emphasis on protection and security.

“The example of FTX collapsing is not good and we need to be sure that we can do better. For example, we have the second biggest protection fund in our industry, second only to Binance. It’s valued at almost $600 million.

“Basically, we have opened six open wallets so that users can check out our funds – in USDT, USDC and Bitcoin. We don’t even hold Ethereum. We want our users to feel comfortable with us which is why we emphasize transparency and security.”

That was the second successful element and the third was luck. Chen signed up football legend Lionel Messi as an ambassador in 2022 and of course Argentina won the world cup that year.

“We chose him not only for his great football skills, but he is also an incredible leader. I was in Qatar watching the final and was literally crying when they won.”

Part of Chen’s role as managing director is also to manage the listing team, picking the tokens which can be both an art and a science. It also involves a lot of research.

“In essence, my job is to provide the best tokens for our users to trade, and to grow the user base at the same time.”

Chen also takes her role in gender diversity very seriously as well. She commissioned research that discovered only 6.34% of overall funding goes to female led startups. What makes that figure surprising is that more than 70% of all crypto holders are women.

“That is a huge discrepancy which is why we founded Blockchain for her – a CSR program to empower more female entrepreneurs, especially female led blockchain projects.”

Chen argues that Web3 has at its core decentralization – that it is a key spiritual core spirit of the industry.

“We know we need more females in this space, but especially in the dire funding percentage. If you look at a family structure, the wife or mother’s role is not limited to herself, it encompasses the whole family, their wealth management and educating the next generation.”

Chen’s confidence has not been without possible knocks or setbacks. When running her VR company, she did some fund raising. Speaking with a male VC, she discovered that he liked her project but had a rule not to invest in female entrepreneurs.

“I was shocked to be honest. I appreciated his honesty but I was shocked. He felt that female entrepreneurs are less capable and if they have children, then they won’t be as dedicated to their work.”

Chen is determined this prejudice will not be present in Bitget. Some 40% of all managers are female and no one is checking out their parental status.

“Their personal status does not matter. What we focus on is the value that person brings to the company. Are they a great leader that can make an impact? Do they really want to build? That goes back to my earlier comments about building in a bear market, sometimes the price can create unhelpful noise.”

Chen surrounds herself with capable women – both within Bitget and externally – and she looks to industry stars such as the Lighting Labs co founder Elizabeth Stark, VC CEO of Ark invest Cathie Wood and Hall Capital’s founder Katie Hall to gain inspiration.

Chen argues that for women to come up through the ranks, it needs to start at the top.

“We need our industry to see women in management as role models.”

Bitget under Chen’s guidance has set up three approaches to foster this growth. The first layer is the ambassador program where Chen has invited leading women to join and advocate for gender diversity and drive positive changes towards inclusivity.

The second layer is the women in blockchain summit awards which celebrates and recognizes the achievements of women in this blockchain industry – as well as creating networking opportunities to foster community.

The third layer is what Chen calls an incubation program for female entrepreneurs including pitching competitions which provides them with support, mentorship and resources in order to succeed in the blockchain industry.

Overall Bitget is investing $10 million into providing this commitment.

It’s a big commitment and Chen has some key success measurements which include having more women at the table, especially in leadership roles, having better access to funding for female entrepreneurs and the elimination of the gender pay gap.

“We want to make sure that women can make an impact – and to do that, they need to be present. That is my driving passion – and not only will Bitget benefit, but so too will families, communities and even nations.”

See more stories about Bitget here.