LBank at 11: Eric He on Building an Exchange for More Than One Market Cycle

Eleven years in crypto will not be merely an anniversary. It means navigating a number of boom-and-bust cycles, altering asset narratives, change failures, and the rising convergence between conventional finance and onchain markets.

At its 11-year mark, LBank reviews greater than 30 million registered customers and $23.81 billion in each day buying and selling quantity. In an unique interview with Bitcoinist, Eric He, LBank’s Community Angel & Risk Management Advisor, seems to be past the following sizzling token to debate a extra consequential query: how an change can stability velocity, entry, safety, and sturdy belief because the market turns into extra advanced.

Q. LBank is marking its eleventh anniversary. Looking again, what’s a very powerful precept the corporate has discovered—not the largest progress quantity?

Eric He: A ship is most secure in port, however that isn’t what ships are constructed for. In favorable markets, any platform can speak about progress. The actual check comes when volatility rises and confidence is fragile: can the platform maintain working reliably, and may it maintain danger administration forward of quantity?

Over eleven years, what customers anticipate from an change has modified. Early on, the questions have been easy: Is the asset accessible? Can I commerce it? Today, customers additionally ask whether or not liquidity is actual, whether or not listings are dealt with with self-discipline, how their belongings are protected, and whether or not the platform helps them navigate a extra difficult market.

That is why now we have stored evolving our product and infrastructure somewhat than treating an anniversary as a static milestone. This yr, LBank surpassed 30 million registered customers globally. To me, that isn’t a end line. It represents 30 million particular person selections throughout areas, languages, ranges of expertise, and danger appetites. The quantity that issues most is whether or not they select to stick with LBank via the following market cycle.

Q. Competition amongst exchanges is transferring past who lists belongings quickest towards who can assist extra buying and selling use instances. What function ought to LBank play on this subsequent part?

Eric He: Aristotle wrote that excellence will not be an act, however a behavior. An change shouldn’t be only a web page that brings consumers and sellers collectively. Across asset discovery, commerce execution, and danger choices, it ought to assist customers construct higher buying and selling habits over time.

The change was primarily a gateway. Going ahead, it must be extra like disciplined buying and selling infrastructure: conscious of crypto-native alternatives, whereas giving customers higher liquidity, higher instruments, and clearer danger context. For LBank, which means advancing three issues at as soon as: staying near rising crypto narratives, increasing entry to belongings linked to the actual economic system, and persevering with to enhance danger controls and buying and selling expertise.

We don’t consider extra options robotically create extra worth. The goal is to offer customers a coherent path. They could start with belongings they already perceive, then—as soon as they perceive the principles and dangers—entry tokenized U.S. equities, stablecoin-related merchandise, or different eligible asset courses. The measure of success will not be whether or not a function exists, however whether or not customers genuinely use it.

Q. At the 11-year milestone, what achievements greatest characterize the place LBank is right now? Which metrics would you like the market to concentrate to?

Eric He: The most significant achievements usually are not remoted peaks. They are a set of indicators exhibiting that customers proceed to decide on the platform and that the platform itself is changing into extra succesful.

This yr, LBank reached 30 million registered customers and $23.81 billion in each day buying and selling quantity. In 2026, spot buying and selling quantity reached $16 billion, whereas complete buying and selling quantity reached $23.81 billion. More importantly, progress will not be coming from one market alone. Our month-to-month TradFi buying and selling quantity reached $3 billion, whereas LBank ranked first for stock-market depth within the related market knowledge. LBank Stock market share peaked at 27.32%, and U.S. inventory spot market share was reported at a 340% premium to the top-10 common.

The product knowledge issues, too. Copy buying and selling has reached $15 billion in capital, LBank Cash has processed greater than 10 million transactions, and BK Genie has served greater than 1.5 million merchants. We have allotted $70 million in complete rewards, with $15 million in cumulative Earn subscriptions and $55 million distributed via Token Splash and airdrops. Sixteen listed belongings have delivered good points of greater than 100x.

None of those figures is a price judgment by itself. Together, they need to reply a extra helpful query: Is progress rooted in actual buying and selling demand, sturdy liquidity, and merchandise that folks really use—not merely short-term incentives?

Q. As tokenized U.S. equities grow to be a brand new battleground for exchanges, what’s LBank’s core aggressive benefit on this market?

Eric He: Partnerships and distribution can create a market entry level shortly. But long-term competitiveness relies upon on whether or not customers can execute high-quality trades as soon as they arrive. We don’t see tokenized equities as one other class to fill on a product shelf. We see them as an improve to what an change can supply: a path between crypto and conventional belongings that may function across the clock, with actual liquidity and clear danger boundaries.

LBank’s first benefit is execution high quality. It will not be sufficient for an asset to be technically tradable. In a BeInCrypto market-depth report, LBank ranked first for U.S. inventory spot buying and selling depth. For HOOD-related pairs, HOODON order-book depth was 4.42 instances that of Gate, HOODX was 2.23 instances Gate’s, and HOODB depth was 22.8% larger than Binance’s. That issues as a result of it reveals customers can do greater than see tokenized equities listed; they will commerce them in a market with deeper, extra actionable liquidity.

The second benefit is how these belongings connect with the remainder of the platform. Through initiatives involving xStocks, Ondo Finance, and bStocks, we’re increasing the vary of belongings customers can entry. But we’re equally centered on what follows: efficient worth discovery, a transparent understanding of asset construction, and continuity throughout market hours. Tokenized equities ought to join with crypto-native liquidity, buying and selling instruments, and schooling—not sit in an remoted tab.

Our month-to-month TradFi quantity has reached $3 billion, which indicators actual demand for around-the-clock, cross-market entry. But this market have to be constructed on transparency, regional availability, asset mapping, liquidity, and clear danger disclosures. Users ought to perceive precisely what they’re buying and selling, in addition to the rights and dangers concerned.

Q. LBank has partnered with a number of IPs in recent times, most notably Pudgy Penguins. Decrypt has additionally described LBank as a extra youth-oriented change. What is the strategic logic behind this IP strategy, and what does “youth-oriented” really imply to you?

Eric He: Being youth-oriented will not be about utilizing brighter colours or repackaging FOMO. It is about understanding how a brand new era discovers belongings, kinds id, participates in communities, and is smart of advanced monetary concepts.

Crypto has by no means been only a worth chart. For youthful, culturally fluent customers, a neighborhood, a personality, or a shared language may be the entry level to a brand new narrative. That is the context for our partnership with Pudgy Penguins. It will not be a easy emblem collaboration. Pudgy Penguins is a cultural asset that Web3-native communities already perceive. The collaboration helps make one thing summary—liquidity—extra tangible. Liquidity will not be solely a quantity on an order e-book; it may be understood, shared, and linked to a collective reminiscence.

But tradition will not be a substitute for product. IP can decrease the barrier to consideration and participation. The change nonetheless has to ship liquidity, product high quality, danger disclosures, and dependable asset safety. We need youthful customers to enter LBank with their very own pursuits and manner of expressing themselves, somewhat than asking them to suit a standardized dealer profile. That is the actual that means of this yr’s anniversary theme, “Come As You Are”: protect particular person distinction whereas offering each person with clear selections and the identical baseline of safety.

Q. AI is not a standalone sector—it’s changing into a structural power throughout markets. With firms equivalent to Anthropic and OpenAI extensively seen as potential IPO candidates, capital markets, expertise narratives, and crypto are converging. How may this reshape asset provide, person decision-making, and danger administration for exchanges? How is LBank getting ready?

Eric He: AI has moved past being one other market theme. It is altering productiveness, capital allocation, and the way info is distributed at the identical time. If main AI firms finally attain public markets via IPOs or different routes, customers won’t solely be wanting at an AI-themed token. They shall be making an attempt to grasp completely different dangers and alternatives generated by the identical expertise cycle throughout public equities, tokenized belongings, and crypto-native networks.

That modifications three capabilities an change wants. First, asset provide: exchanges have to assist credible AI-related crypto belongings and, the place rules enable, present paths to tokenized expertise publicity. But “AI” can not grow to be an excuse to decrease itemizing requirements. Second, person decision-making: when narratives journey sooner than analysis, platforms ought to assist customers separate technological worth, commercialization progress, liquidity, and pure sentiment somewhat than amplify the noise. Third, danger administration: AI can enhance risk detection, anomaly monitoring, anti-phishing efforts, and market surveillance. Yet AI-driven automation also can amplify errors, manipulation, and data asymmetry if governance doesn’t maintain tempo.

For LBank, the work runs on two tracks. Externally, we’re following the asset and cross-market buying and selling demand created by the AI cycle, together with broader expertise publicity the place merchandise can be found in compliant jurisdictions. Internally, we’re making use of AI to market intelligence, product assist, and danger identification—notably to establish uncommon fund flows, account habits, and rising assault indicators extra shortly.

The boundary is obvious: AI could make info extra accessible, nevertheless it can not make funding choices for customers. It can speed up danger response, nevertheless it can not substitute clear guidelines, human assessment, and accountability. The system value constructing will not be an “AI dealer” that bets for customers, however one which helps them see extra clearly, commerce with extra self-discipline, and shield their belongings extra successfully.

Q. After change failures, asset misappropriation, and more and more refined assaults, what particular steps is LBank taking to strengthen safety?

Eric He: Security can’t be diminished to “belief us.” It is a system that has to work below stress. The business has discovered that an change can solely present liquidity, execution, and world entry when asset safety and danger governance are credible first.

At LBank, safety is a platform-wide duty, not a single workforce’s activity. At the infrastructure layer, we proceed to strengthen cold- and hot-wallet segregation, multi-layer authorization, abnormal-behavior monitoring, real-time danger alerts, and incident-response mechanisms. On the person aspect, the aim is to make safety extra seen at crucial danger moments with out creating pointless friction in extraordinary use.

This yr, we additionally launched the Crypto Resilience Initiative, with CertiK and SlowMist collaborating. The initiative will not be about including a one-off scan or borrowing credibility from a 3rd occasion. It is about transferring safety from post-incident response towards long-term resilience via steady monitoring, shared risk intelligence, incident-response workout routines, and person safety schooling. The goal is to enhance each prevention and restoration when new assault strategies or excessive market situations emerge.

AI is an necessary layer in that effort. We are strengthening AI-assisted danger identification and behavioral evaluation to detect suspicious fund flows, account anomalies, phishing exercise, and assault indicators earlier. But AI will not be a magic phrase that may substitute governance. It has to work alongside human safety groups, outlined response processes, and out of doors experience. We don’t promise “absolute safety.” We are constructing defenses that may maintain evolving and may be examined.

Q. How do you see the market growing from right here? After rallies and pullbacks, why do you stay constructive on crypto?

Eric He: I might not body short-term worth strikes as a certainty. Crypto will stay unstable. Macro liquidity, price expectations, regulation, expertise cycles, and market sentiment can all change costs shortly. But if the query is whether or not I stay constructive on crypto’s long-term route, the reply is sure. I’m, at coronary heart, a crypto believer.

That conviction will not be primarily based on the concept costs solely transfer larger. It comes from the truth that infrastructure and actual demand are deepening at the identical time. Stablecoins are altering cross-border settlement and onchain capital effectivity. Tokenized belongings are making extra real-world worth accessible in versatile methods. AI is creating new productiveness and data-coordination use instances. And the demand for always-on, cross-border, verifiable monetary providers has not disappeared.

Every pullback removes some hypothesis, nevertheless it additionally forces the business to construct stronger merchandise, higher compliance practices, and extra resilient safety. I see market cycles as stress exams, not exams of perception. The market can rise or fall within the brief time period; the longer-term route will rely on whether or not the business can flip technical benefits into actual, credible, and sturdy person worth. LBank’s function is to not name each turning level. It is to supply liquidity, instruments, danger administration, and entry to rising asset courses via each cycle.

Q. What behavioral recommendation would you supply merchants within the present market?

Eric He: I might somewhat speak about self-discipline than particular tokens or entry factors. Crypto rewards sustained studying, nevertheless it punishes individuals who deal with emotion as a method.

First, perceive the asset and the product you might be buying and selling—particularly extra advanced merchandise equivalent to leverage, perpetual futures, and tokenized belongings. Second, outline what you possibly can afford to lose earlier than deciding your place measurement, not the opposite manner round. Third, don’t let social-media momentum substitute analysis. A development is usually a helpful sign to research, nevertheless it mustn’t grow to be your conclusion. Finally, set a time horizon and an exit situation earlier than volatility forces you to rewrite your individual guidelines.

I stay bullish on the business, however believing in an business will not be the identical as believing in each commerce. A mature dealer will not be somebody who captures each rally. It is somebody who can nonetheless be within the sport when they’re improper. The platform’s function is to supply clear info, enough liquidity, clear danger disclosures, and dependable instruments. Each funding choice ought to stay unbiased and applicable to the person’s personal circumstances; the place wanted, customers ought to seek the advice of a licensed skilled.

Q. In your anniversary letter, you outlined 4 coordinates for the longer term: globalization, safety, user-centricity, and a “super-ecosystem.” Why these 4?

Eric He: I’m cautious about end-state predictions. In an business that’s regularly repriced, saying “I don’t know” will not be a scarcity of route. It means we don’t confuse creativeness with certainty. That is precisely why we’d like coordinates that don’t shift with each short-term narrative.

First, globalization. Real globalization will not be translating the identical press launch into twenty languages. It signifies that a person in a small Latin American city or on a road nook in Southeast Asia can entry the identical baseline of belief and liquidity.

Second, safety. It will not be a line in a whitepaper. It is a disciplined respect for danger. In this market, danger administration should at all times transfer sooner than greed.

Third, user-centricity. Complexity ought to keep inside our techniques, whereas the person receives a less complicated, smoother expertise and extra tangible safety.

Finally, what we name the super-ecosystem: connecting the asset flows of conventional finance, the uncooked power of crypto, and the neighborhood worth of IP so that they reinforce one another somewhat than sit in silos. These 4 coordinates don’t assure that each short-term name shall be proper. They assist us maintain our route when the tide goes out.

Q. Eleven years from now, how would you want customers to explain LBank?

Eric He: We are not looking for customers to recollect LBank solely as a result of it listed a specific sizzling asset or ran a single marketing campaign. We need them to consider LBank after they enter a fast-moving market and want alternative, helpful instruments, and a platform that respects danger.

If customers come to see LBank as a spot that understands crypto-native tradition, brings a wider world of belongings into a transparent buying and selling expertise, and may be trusted when it issues, then the final eleven years may have meant one thing. An anniversary will not be the end line. It is the following web page within the work of proving that.