be in love with each other? Kill each other? Binance Circle and OKX - My Personal Perspective on the Triangular Relationship As is well known, Circle's biggest thigh has been Coinbase for a long time, and Coinbase's main markets have been in Europe and America. USDC has been lukewarm on Binance and OKX for a long time, although there are trading pairs, they are far behind USDT. In the past week, there have been reports of Binance investing in Circle and Circle (along with other companies) investing in OKX, both of which are true. I saw some friends asking, are Binance and Coinbase indirectly becoming shareholders of OKX? If viewed from a financial perspective, it can indeed be understood as having an indirect equity interest relationship. Coinbase and Binance hold shares in Circle, which in turn holds shares in OKX. Therefore, the investment returns that Circle may receive from OKX in the future may also indirectly benefit Coinbase and Binance. Of course, the shareholder of OKX is Circle, which does not mean that Coinbase and Binance can directly participate in OKX's operations. And the changes brought about by this relationship are part of the interests of Binance and Coinbase, which are now linked to the business of competitors. Assuming OKX develops better and Circle's equity in OKX appreciates as a result, even if Coinbase and Binance do not acquire a user from OKX, they may still share some of the profits through Circle. Binance's investment in Circle itself follows the same principle. Previously, promoting USDC mainly relied on the commercial cooperation between both parties for revenue. Now, in addition to cooperation income, equity income has also been increased. According to the five-year agreement disclosed this time, Circle will pay monthly incentive fees to Binance based on the USDC holding balance in the agreed wallet. The value of Circle's equity is also influenced by USDC's development on other platforms and Circle's other businesses. For Circle, investing in OKX also adds a source of income. Originally, the cooperation between the two parties was mainly aimed at making USDC more widely used on OKX. Now, if OKX itself develops well, Circle also has the opportunity to benefit through shareholding. So, in order to expand the use of USDC, Binance invests its own money in the issuer, while Circle invests its own money in the trading platform. The increased equity returns on both sides come from different businesses. For OKX, in addition to obtaining funding, it also strengthens the connection between Circle's interests and the platform itself. In the past, Circle was more concerned about how many people used USDC on OKX, but now the overall development of OKX will also affect Circle's investment return. Even if some businesses do not use USDC, Circle as a shareholder has the opportunity to benefit as long as it can increase the value of OKX, which provides an additional reason for both parties to continue investing resources in cooperation. So the interests of these companies are not completely aligned, but there is no longer only competition. Binance and Coinbase still hope that users will stay on their platforms, Circle hopes that USDC will be used on more platforms, and OKX hopes that cooperation can bring more users and transactions. Now that these relationships are connected through equity, an interesting result has emerged: the same user trades on OKX, and the transaction fees are earned by OKX. However, if this part of the business ultimately increases the value of Circle's equity holdings, Binance and Coinbase may also indirectly benefit. In the next article, I will talk about why in my eyes OKX accepted Circle's investment instead of investing in Circle. One @ Gate, trade more markets