OKX: Crypto exchange and Web3 wallet
Role
Product Marketing Manager
Timeline
2021 to 2024
Location
San Jose, CA
Overview
I joined OKX in late 2021 as a product marketing manager, just as one of crypto’s most turbulent periods began. Within a year, Terra and its UST stablecoin collapsed, FTX went bankrupt and Bitcoin fell 77% from its peak. I marketed two OKX products through that period. OKX Lite made buying crypto simple for beginners, and OKX Wallet let users hold their own funds after FTX broke trust in exchanges.
OKX Lite made crypto simple
I ran the OKX Lite beta and its global release across North America, Europe, Latin America and Asia. Within three months, 20% of daily active users had made Lite their default mode in the OKX app. Lite later became the standard interface in regulated markets such as Hong Kong, Brazil, Argentina and Turkey.
In 2022, major exchanges were all working to make crypto accessible to beginners. FTX had paid $150 million for Blockfolio, a popular portfolio tracker, to give retail customers a simpler way to trade. Coinbase ran Coinbase Pro alongside its standard app, and Binance offered Binance Lite next to its advanced trading platform.
OKX Lite was our way to make crypto accessible. It kept a minimal interface and left out derivatives, so beginners could buy and sell crypto without the complexity of the full exchange.
From beta to global launch
Beta sign-up. Users joined the beta through a landing page by sharing their email and device type, iOS or Android.
Beta test. We released Lite to 10,000 beta testers. iOS testers got it through TestFlight, Apple’s beta testing app, and Android testers installed an APK file.
Global launch. We fixed critical bugs and added testers’ feedback. Then we worked with regional marketing managers and channel leads to announce that Lite was available worldwide.
For the global launch, our messaging promised a simpler OKX. These were the main lines:
“Crypto can be complicated. Let’s keep it Lite”
“Your crypto journey starts here”
“Experience a whole new OKX, built for the features that matter most”
“A faster, sleeker, simpler OKX”
OKX Wallet put users in control
After FTX collapsed in late 2022, I joined OKX’s Web3 team to market OKX Wallet. Users were leaving centralized exchanges and looking for self-custody they could trust. In a self-custody wallet, users control the keys to their funds, so no exchange holds their money.
We built OKX Wallet to put everything users needed in Web3 in one place, instead of across several wallets and apps. It combined an NFT marketplace, a decentralized exchange (DEX) and an aggregator for decentralized finance (DeFi) protocols. The DEX worked across blockchains and used smart routing to choose the best path for each trade.
Users who left centralized exchanges after FTX still needed a wallet they could trust, so we built security features into OKX Wallet. They could easily review and revoke the permissions they had given to smart contracts, so an unused app could no longer move their tokens. Because OKX Wallet sat in the same app as the exchange, users could trade on OKX and move funds into self-custody instantly. The goal was to make the switch between centralized finance (CeFi) and DeFi as simple as possible.
Features I launched
OKX Bridge. OKX Bridge let users send tokens across blockchains. We integrated it with Circle’s Cross-Chain Transfer Protocol (CCTP), so users could transfer native USDC from one chain to another.
Snap Mode, powered by UniswapX. We announced Snap Mode, which let users swap tokens on Ethereum without paying gas fees. UniswapX liquidity providers covered that cost for each user.
Concentrated liquidity pools. We announced OKX Wallet’s integration with Uniswap V3. Liquidity providers could place their funds within a price range they chose, which can earn them more trading fees on the same capital.
DeFi protocol integrations. We worked with Lido, Scallop, Renzo, Stader, EigenLayer, Babylon and Venus to offer subsidized yield. The goal was to grow staking TVL, the total value locked (TVL) in these protocols through OKX Wallet.
CertiK security scores. We partnered with CertiK, a blockchain security firm, to show security scores for the DeFi protocols in the wallet. Users could see potential risks before they staked.
Results from August 2022 to February 2023
Staking TVL grew more than sixfold, from $50 million to more than $320 million.
Daily active wallets more than doubled, from 26,000 to 55,300.
Daily active wallets outside China nearly quadrupled, from 7,300 to 27,600.
OKX Wallet in 2025, after my time at OKX
Shared services kept pace
OKX’s Web3 team averaged two feature announcements a week and at least one major product update a month. Keeping up was hard. Marketing kept pace because Haider Rafique, OKX’s chief marketing officer (CMO), set up a shared services model for the marketing organization.
In the shared services model, central teams produced videos and content, ran events, localized materials and pulled campaign performance data. Product marketers like me requested that work through standard forms and followed each request in a shared project tracker.
"Will is a hard worker who delivers under tight deadlines and embraces challenges with a 'can-do' attitude. His writing skills are outstanding, crafting clear and compelling content. I wholeheartedly recommend him and hope our paths cross again."
Kristen Wagner, Program Manager at OKX
Reflections and next steps
Working at OKX changed how I approach projects. I learned from some of the sharpest minds in crypto, who were building foundational Web3 infrastructure. With more than 50 million users on the platform, every marketing decision also carried high stakes.
I am grateful for my time at OKX. I worked with talented people, helped launch products in markets around the world and traveled widely. I left in 2024 to lead product marketing at an early-stage startup focused on tokenizing private assets. The chance to build a company from the ground up drew me there.
