#DrHan2025YearEndOpenLetter

2025 marked a defining turning point for Gate not as a single product, but as an integrated next-generation Web3 infrastructure. Over the course of the year, Gate moved decisively beyond the identity of a traditional exchange and positioned itself as a multi-layer digital economy platform combining trading, infrastructure, compliance, and on-chain innovation.
As we step into early 2026, Gate’s progress over the past year reveals a clear pattern: scale first, infrastructure second, ecosystem last — a sequence that many competitors struggle to execute correctly.
2025: From Expansion to Execution
Throughout 2025, Gate demonstrated strength in both market presence and technical depth.
From a market perspective, Gate consistently remained among the top global exchanges, ranking near the top in spot and derivatives trading activity. User adoption continued to accelerate, crossing tens of millions of registered accounts, reflecting sustained organic growth rather than short-term promotional spikes. What stood out most was Gate’s continued commitment to asset diversity, maintaining one of the widest listing ecosystems in the industry and reinforcing its role as an early access platform for emerging projects.
On the infrastructure side, 2025 was the year Gate laid its technical foundation for long-term relevance. The launch of Gate Layer, an EVM-compatible Layer 2 network with high throughput capacity, signaled a strategic pivot from being a venue for trading to becoming a settlement and execution layer for Web3 applications. This was reinforced by significant upgrades to Proof of Reserves architecture using zero-knowledge technologies, strengthening transparency while protecting user privacy a balance that has become increasingly important post-2022.
Latency optimizations further aligned Gate with institutional requirements, narrowing the performance gap between centralized and professional trading venues.
Brand, Compliance, and Global Reach
Gate’s 2025 global rebrand was not cosmetic. The transition to a unified brand identity simplified market recognition while supporting deeper international expansion. Strategic collaborations across sports, culture, and digital collectibles extended Gate’s visibility beyond crypto-native audiences, while continued progress on regulatory licensing across multiple jurisdictions underscored its intention to operate as a compliant global player rather than a region-dependent exchange.
2026: From Infrastructure to Integration
According to Dr. Han’s year-end vision, 2026 is not about building more components — it is about connecting what already exists.
A key focus is the convergence of centralized and decentralized experiences into a unified Gate App, where users interact with Web3 tools without needing to understand the underlying complexity. This approach reflects a broader industry realization: adoption scales fastest when technology becomes invisible.
Artificial intelligence is expected to play a central role in this phase. Rather than generic automation, Gate’s roadmap emphasizes purpose-built AI agents designed for portfolio management, execution logic, and risk control. Importantly, governance and quality assurance frameworks are being prioritized to ensure these systems enhance decision-making rather than amplify risk.
Institutional integration is another pillar of 2026. Tokenized real-world assets, including yield-bearing instruments, are being positioned as bridges between traditional finance and on-chain markets. Alongside this, Gate Pay and custody solutions are evolving to support enterprise-level capital flows and settlement requirements.
GT in 2026: Structural Evolution, Not Speculation
In this context, GateToken (GT) is undergoing a fundamental transformation. Its role is shifting away from a purely exchange-centric utility toward becoming an operational asset within a Layer 2 ecosystem.
GT now functions as the transaction fuel for Gate Layer, aligning its demand directly with network usage rather than trading volume alone. Staking mechanisms increasingly tie GT to network security and decentralization, while AI-driven services within the ecosystem introduce new, non-speculative demand channels.
From a tokenomics perspective, the continued burn mechanism reinforces long-term scarcity, but the more important signal is utility expansion. As Gate Layer adoption grows, GT’s valuation framework begins to resemble infrastructure tokens rather than traditional exchange tokens a distinction that could redefine how the market prices it over time.
Closing Thought
Gate’s trajectory into 2026 reflects a broader shift within crypto: away from isolated products and toward integrated digital economies. Execution, not narrative, will determine success. If Gate delivers on integration, AI governance, and real-world asset connectivity, it will not just participate in the next phase of Web3 it will help define it.