#GateCEO2025YearEndOpenLetter Gate’s Evolution and the Road to 2026

In 2025, Gate firmly solidified its position as a “Next Generation Crypto Exchange”, completing a strategic transition from a traditional trading platform into a comprehensive Web3 ecosystem. The year was defined by a major global rebranding, record-breaking trading volumes, and the successful launch of Gate’s own Layer 2 blockchain infrastructure. These achievements marked a decisive shift toward long-term ecosystem building, technological depth, and sustainable growth.
Throughout 2025, Gate demonstrated strong market dominance and user expansion. The platform consistently ranked as the world’s second-largest spot exchange by 24-hour trading volume and remained among the top three futures exchanges globally. In July 2025, Gate surpassed 30 million registered users, reflecting a 22% year-over-year growth rate. At the same time, Gate maintained one of the industry’s most diverse asset offerings, with over 3,800 listed cryptocurrencies and more than 2,900 trading pairs, reinforcing its role as a global liquidity center.
From a technology perspective, 2025 was a breakthrough year. The launch of Gate Layer, an EVM-compatible Layer 2 network capable of processing over 5,700 transactions per second, laid the foundation for Gate’s on-chain future. GateToken (GT) was positioned as the native gas token, embedding it directly into the network’s economic activity. Gate also enhanced its Proof of Reserves framework using zero-knowledge proofs and Merkle-tree verification, maintaining reserve ratios consistently above 123%, with total assets reaching approximately $12 billion. Additionally, low-latency system upgrades reduced trading latency by more than 50%, significantly improving execution for institutional and high-frequency traders.
2025 also marked a major leap in brand positioning and global influence. Gate officially transitioned to the Gate.com domain, simplifying and unifying its global identity. Strategic partnerships with Oracle Red Bull Racing (Formula 1) and Inter Milan goalkeeper Yann Sommer expanded Gate’s visibility beyond the crypto-native audience. Notably, the Red Bull NFT collaboration exceeded one million mints, showcasing Gate’s growing presence in digital culture and Web3 engagement. On the compliance front, Gate strengthened its regulatory footprint by securing and expanding licenses in Dubai, Europe, Australia, and Japan, including the acquisition of Coin Master to accelerate its regulated expansion in the Japanese market.
Looking ahead, Founder Dr. Han has outlined a clear vision for 2026 centered on “connecting the entire digital economy.” A core focus will be the development of a unified Gate App, seamlessly integrating centralized exchange services with decentralized Web3 tools. The objective is to make Web3 interactions effectively invisible—allowing users to trade, manage assets, make payments, and interact on-chain with minimal friction and maximum accessibility.
Artificial intelligence will be a defining pillar of Gate’s 2026 roadmap. The platform plans to roll out autonomous AI trading agents capable of self-managing portfolios, executing complex multi-step strategies, and delivering personalized risk management. To ensure reliability and safety, Gate intends to establish internal AI Quality Control councils, responsible for validating the accuracy, transparency, and responsible use of autonomous systems across the ecosystem.
Institutional adoption and real-world asset (RWA) integration will also accelerate in 2026. Gate aims to deepen the integration of tokenized U.S. Treasury bills, private credit, and other yield-bearing traditional assets, enabling users to earn real yield backed by real-world instruments. At the same time, Gate Pay and institutional custody solutions will expand to support corporate treasuries, multi-level account management, and large-scale digital asset settlements, further bridging traditional finance and blockchain infrastructure.
Within this expanding ecosystem, GateToken (GT) is undergoing a fundamental evolution. By the end of 2025, more than 60% of GT’s initial supply had already been burned, reinforcing a strong deflationary foundation. In 2026, the GT burning mechanism will increasingly depend on Gate Layer network activity and platform revenue, directly linking token scarcity to real usage and ecosystem growth.
GT’s utility has expanded far beyond fee discounts and VIP benefits. It now functions as the exclusive gas token for Gate Layer, a staking asset essential for network security, and a payment unit within the emerging AI agent economy, including automated portfolio management and DePIN resource allocation. As developers, decentralized applications, and AI agents migrate to Gate Layer’s high-performance environment, transactional demand for GT is expected to scale alongside network adoption.
As of January 2026, GT shows a resilient market structure supported by multiple long-term catalysts. Continued buyback-and-burn programs—using 20% of platform profits—combined with growing Layer 2 adoption and expanding ecosystem utility create sustained deflationary pressure. Market sentiment for 2026 remains cautiously optimistic, with analysts suggesting that strong developer adoption on Gate Layer could trigger a valuation re-rating, positioning GT closer to major Layer 1 and Layer 2 assets rather than a traditional exchange token.
Together, Gate’s 2025 achievements and 2026 roadmap position it not merely as a trading platform, but as a foundational infrastructure provider for the next phase of the digital economy—where centralized liquidity, decentralized finance, artificial intelligence, and real-world assets converge into a single, integrated Web3 ecosystem.