Original source: OKX
OKX is a benchmark in the Web3 industry, with its product technology and narrative direction often being very cutting-edge, capable of quickly establishing industry paradigms. On April 28, OKX CEO Star revealed the "secret business line" mentioned during the New Year celebration for 2024—digital asset payment tool OKX Pay. With the launch of OKX Pay, OKX's three major business segment strategies were officially clarified: centralized trading platform, on-chain entry, and decentralized digital asset payment.
Leveraging OKX's over 100 million existing users, OKX Pay completed a cold start upon its launch, quickly entering the crypto payment space. In the next phase, as it further connects with B-end merchant networks and integrates with global payment service providers like Mastercard through the OKX Card, OKX Pay is expected to achieve instant payment and settlement of crypto assets in certain regions supported globally, bridging the gap from online transactions to offline consumption, truly promoting the "last mile" of integrating crypto assets into daily life. At the same time, with a Web2-like product experience, OKX Pay is also opening pathways for the large-scale landing of Web3 applications. As Star envisioned: "Road to the Next Billion Users."
The ideal is rich, but the reality deserves scrutiny. What exactly does OKX Pay truly leverage in entering the payment space? Is it a broader user base, a larger market, or the deep integration of the crypto world with daily life? Let's start from the beginning.
OKX Pay Quickly Gains Popularity
The first version of OKX Pay launched with three core functions: digital asset payment, social interaction, and asset management. For new users, the entire process of OKX Pay can be summarized as "You have an OKX exchange account → Activate OKX Pay smart account → Recharge USDT/USDC stablecoins → Easily make on-chain payments → Currently, the official automatic balance subsidy can be as high as 5% annualized incentive → Create a group with friends and send digital asset red envelopes in chat." This process not only reuses the convenience of existing KYC from CEX but also ensures asset security through AA multi-signature technology and meets compliance audits like AML. Notably, if you lose your Passkey, you can easily recover your wallet through the ZK email recovery feature.
After its launch, OKX Pay quickly took over social media, with KOLs praising its innovative on-chain social payment experience: exclusive groups limited to 100 people filled up instantly, and even after upgrading to 500 people, it was still not enough, with many calling for OKX Pay to lift the group size limit. Additionally, the red envelopes sent out were snatched up in no time. OKX Pay initially planned to attract users quickly through "5% annual subsidy" and "X Layer transaction fee exemption," but what unexpectedly made it popular was the social and digital asset red envelope feature.
OKX Pay also supports scanning or displaying QR codes for crypto asset payments, providing a Web2-like convenient experience; combined with zero fees and instant settlement for stablecoin payments, as well as seamlessly integrated text/voice chat and digital asset red envelopes, these advantages make OKX Pay the best entry point for new users into on-chain social payments. However, OKX Pay still has shortcomings of its initial version: for example, it is only launched in certain regions; the supported public chains are relatively limited; groups cannot scan to add members, and group nicknames cannot be freely modified; contact synchronization permissions cannot be turned off, etc. Although these functional shortcomings need subsequent iterations, they also reflect the immense enthusiasm and participation of users in social payment features.
Entering Stablecoin Payments
Since OKX Pay supports payments with the two major stablecoins USDT/USDC, let's explore whether its business model is robust enough and has sustainable profit potential from the perspective of stablecoins.
As of April 2025, the global stablecoin market cap has surpassed $240 billion, becoming a key force driving innovation in cross-border payments. Research by Thunes indicates that stablecoins are reaching a turning point in B2B trade and rapid settlement, with over 70% of cross-border transactions using stablecoins to reduce the high intermediary fees and long delays of traditional wire transfers. Compared to traditional SWIFT wire transfers or credit card networks, cross-border transactions settled with stablecoins can reduce costs by over 40% and increase speed several times, significantly enhancing payment efficiency. Additionally, institutions like FV Bank predict that this year, stablecoin payments between enterprises will surpass traditional methods, providing institutional support for the large-scale enterprise application of OKX Pay.
Driven by enormous demand, traditional payment giants are testing the waters of crypto payments: Visa is providing USDC targeted clearing services for banks and large FinTechs using the Ethereum network, while PayPal supports the buying and transferring of PYUSD in its own custodial accounts through centralized issuance by Paxos Trust, seamlessly integrating crypto funds into the existing fiat payment system. However, as a purely on-chain native product, OKX Pay achieves zero-fee on-chain final settlement through the AA smart account architecture of OKX Wallet and the X Layer ZK L2 network based on Polygon CDK. This not only gives users control over their assets but also lays the groundwork for integrating payment processes with DeFi ecosystems, smart contracts, and other PayFi scenarios in the Wallet, opening up a truly innovative digital asset payment experience.
More importantly, by establishing a compliant closed loop with local institutions and industry partners, OKX Pay can quickly gain the trust of enterprises and large merchants. For instance, by providing a set of SDKs and APIs, it facilitates merchants' access to this vast and liquid payment pool, and can further collaborate with traditional payment networks like Mastercard and Stripe to connect on-chain stablecoins with the bank card system, achieving cross-border instant settlement in certain globally supported regions. With advantages of low cost, high security, and quick settlement, OKX Pay not only strengthens the competitive barrier of the OKX ecosystem but also pressures competitors like Binance Pay, Kraken Pay, Crypto.com Pay, and Coinbase Pay to accelerate technological and compliance innovations, thus creating the possibility for OKX to overtake in the crypto payment space.
Three Major Business Lines Established
OKX's strategic layout has gradually become clear, forming three core business segments: centralized trading (CEX), on-chain entry (Wallet), and decentralized payment (OKX Pay). This in-depth layout not only meets users' diverse needs from asset trading, on-chain interaction to daily payments but also marks a strategic upgrade for OKX from a traditional digital asset trading platform to a comprehensive Web3 service provider with financial infrastructure capabilities.
Among these three segments, the centralized trading platform remains the core hub of the OKX ecosystem, providing users with an efficient and secure crypto asset trading experience, backed by a solid liquidity foundation, millisecond-level matching engine, and global compliance layout. OKX Wallet serves as a one-stop entry to Web3, supporting multi-chain asset management, DApp interaction, NFT browsing, and DEX trading, significantly lowering the technical barriers for ordinary users to enter the on-chain world. OKX Pay plays a key role in the decentralized payment field, supporting instant zero-fee payments for mainstream stablecoins like USDT and USDC, and actively promoting the popularization and application scenario expansion of crypto payments in certain globally supported regions through partnerships with traditional financial service providers like Mastercard.
Through the collaborative development of these three segments, OKX has built a closed-loop, scenario-interconnected crypto ecosystem. The complementary advantages among the business segments continuously drive the optimization of user experience, showcasing significant advantages in the convenience and security of asset trading, as well as the accessibility and usability of on-chain applications. This strategic synergy not only significantly enhances the smoothness and completeness of the overall user experience but also increases user stickiness and activity on the OKX platform. On this basis, OKX continuously promotes the penetration of crypto technology and applications into the mainstream market, injecting new momentum into the industry's development and becoming a bridge and accelerator for the popularization of crypto.
From Tool to Lifestyle
OKX Pay has broken through cross-border settlement barriers in certain globally supported regions through zero-fee stablecoin payments, significantly lowering the threshold for crypto payments with a Web2-like smooth experience. It is not just a payment tool but is gradually becoming the infrastructure of the Web3 era. With the strategic synergy of its three major business segments, OKX Pay is constructing a complete closed-loop crypto ecosystem, redefining the application scenarios of crypto assets in daily life. As OKX Card and the merchant network are fully rolled out, crypto payments are expected to naturally integrate into our daily lives, just like scanning codes for shopping.
Imagine one morning when you go to buy soy milk, the owner shows you a QR code that can scan USDT; when you pay for coffee with ETH on your phone, the receipt automatically displays "This purchase is equivalent to 0.0012 ETH, and the real-time exchange rate has converted it to local currency." This is no longer science fiction but a future payment scenario that OKX Pay is advancing. Perhaps one day, we will no longer discuss "Do you have crypto assets?" but rather "How do you live with crypto?" At that time, it may be the destination of OKX Pay. It does not require us to adapt to a new world but allows the new world to fairly accept every ordinary person.
And OKX Pay is responding to this expectation at the fastest speed. Sherry, the head of OKX Pay, revealed in a Space sharing that the product completed four iterations within eight months before its launch, with each update being a deep reflection and strategic layout for the future payment ecosystem. Such a high-frequency innovation pace not only reflects the team's dedication to refining the product but also signifies that OKX Pay is gradually turning the vision of integrating crypto assets into daily payments into reality through technological innovation as its engine. Through continuous iterations, OKX Pay is breaking through technical bottlenecks and scenario limitations, accelerating the transition of crypto payments from theoretical concepts to practical life, fully opening up the "last mile" of integrating crypto assets into daily life.
What users can perceive is that this beautiful future is getting closer.
This article is from a submission and does not represent the views of BlockBeats.
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