OKX founder and CEO Star Xu has recounted a series of crises that nearly brought Bitcoin and the wider cryptocurrency industry to collapse, arguing that each episode ultimately left the market stronger. His remarks follow renewed discussion of Bitcoin's history of market crashes and how digital assets have survived previous downturns. That history carries added weight now that regulated financial businesses are deepening their presence in cryptocurrency markets.

Speaking on the New Era Finance Podcast, Xu described early network attacks, the 2014 collapse of Mt. Gox and the 2022 bankruptcy of FTX. He explained that resolving major industry problems can take several months or even a year before recovery begins.

Star Xu: Bitcoin Nearly Died Several Times, but Crypto Emerged Stronger

In an interview on the New Era Finance Podcast @new_era_finance, OKX founder and CEO Star Xu @star_okx recalled Bitcoin's early forks and hash power attacks, the collapse of Mt. Gox, disagreements over… pic.twitter.com/y5v6i4h26

— Wu Blockchain (@WuBlockchain) October 17, 2026

Xu's account spanned more than a decade of upheaval, from the network's earliest technical battles to the failures of major centralized trading platforms, and he argued that the sector's ability to absorb such shocks underpins its resilience.

Early Threats and the Mt. Gox Collapse

According to Xu, Bitcoin faced repeated threats during its early development, particularly between 2011 and 2012. Network forks, security concerns and disputes over mining power raised questions about whether the cryptocurrency could survive. Among the problems he recalled were hash power attacks — attempts to exploit the network's mining power — and disagreements over how Bitcoin should operate, incidents that took place when the network was still small and its infrastructure was maturing.

Xu then pointed to the 2014 collapse of Mt. Gox, once the world's largest Bitcoin exchange, which at its height handled the majority of global Bitcoin transactions. The Tokyo-based platform filed for bankruptcy after reporting approximately 850,000 BTC missing, leaving thousands of customers unable to access their funds. The collapse damaged confidence in centralized cryptocurrency exchanges and led to years of legal proceedings. More than a decade later, Mt. Gox creditor repayments remain connected to the exchange's bankruptcy process, making the case one of the longest-running unresolved failures in the industry's history.

Xu also recalled Bitcoin's scaling disputes, which divided developers, miners and businesses over the network's transaction capacity. The disagreements eventually contributed to the creation of Bitcoin Cash through a hard fork in August 2017, a protocol split that produces a separate blockchain operating under different rules. The debate centered on competing proposals to increase transaction throughput while preserving Bitcoin's decentralized structure, and Xu described the period as another stretch in which the industry's future appeared uncertain.

FTX Collapse and Stronger Industry Standards

The discussion later turned to FTX, whose November 2022 bankruptcy disrupted cryptocurrency markets and exposed serious failures in customer fund management. The exchange's collapse triggered withdrawals across competing platforms and increased pressure for stronger custody controls.

Xu said the industry has repeatedly worked through such problems, although resolving them often requires considerable time. In his view, cryptocurrency businesses become better prepared after addressing the weaknesses exposed during each crisis. The fallout from FTX renewed attention on exchange reserves and on whether customer assets were properly separated from company funds. Years later, former Mt. Gox executives have continued proposing recovery measures, showing how long unresolved exchange failures can remain relevant.

During the podcast, Xu also discussed OKX's approach to handling customer assets and explained why he rejects using deposits for speculative investments. He pointed to monthly proof-of-reserves reporting as one measure intended to help customers verify exchange holdings, a practice that gained traction across the industry after the FTX collapse heightened scrutiny of reserves.

Expansion Into Regulated Finance

OKX has since expanded beyond conventional cryptocurrency trading through partnerships involving traditional financial institutions. Earlier this month, the exchange secured new funding from Circle, Ripple and Standard Chartered at a $25 billion valuation. The company is also pursuing tokenized securities and stablecoin services as more regulated financial businesses enter cryptocurrency markets. Its planned tokenized stock trading platform with Intercontinental Exchange forms part of that expansion. Those initiatives remain in development, giving observers specific projects to track as regulated finance's footprint in the market grows.

Xu maintained that Bitcoin's past recoveries support his confidence in the industry's longer-term development. He expects stablecoins, regulation and tokenized financial products to play larger roles during the coming decade.