Zero fees and AI reshape crypto trading, MEXC CEO says

In August, 20 traders assembled in Bali for the Alpha Arena S03 final, where they competed in a live simulated trading environment for a portion of $100,000.

MEXC Ventures backed the event, which took place at CoinFest Asia. Japan's Arumando took first place, with Murasaki Trades from the Philippines and Coin6097 from South Korea coming in second and third.

MEXC CEO Vugar Usi said the competition demonstrated that a trader could start with a small sum, make the right trade, and become wealthy almost overnight — a concept central to crypto's draw.

Exposing Trading for What It Is

At Alpha Arena, Usi highlighted the contrast between observing traders throughout a session and tracking them on social media, where winning trades often overshadow losses, uncertainty, and emotional choices.

During the Bali event, traders were monitored continuously. Organizers tracked heart rates, letting viewers see reactions to market movements and whether participants stuck to their plans or acted under pressure.

“You see what kind of decisions they make. Are they panicking? Are they panic buying or panic selling? Are they good at following their instinct, or are they more practical?” Usi said.

This is one reason Usi thinks trading has a lower barrier to entry than many professions. A person can study markets on their own, develop a method, and compete against traders with formal training and costly technology.

For exchanges seeking to attract younger users, this shifts the focus. Beyond market access, traders want information, analytical tools, and products that help them understand what unfolds.

On Zero Trading Fees

Rivalry among major exchanges has intensified as they compete on trading fees.

Zero-fee trading is a key part of MEXC's strategy. The exchange currently offers zero maker and taker fees on spot markets and some futures products, with terms varying by product and campaign. According to MEXC, its zero-fee programs saved 3.44 million users about 1.1 billion USDT in 2025.

Usi contends that dropping fees to zero pushes exchanges to compete on other fronts.

“When price is zero, it means the user is not choosing you because of just price,” he said. “That is where the competition actually starts.”

Once fee undercutting is no longer possible, he says, product quality, speed, market selection, trading tools, and other benefits become decisive.

MEXC now provides equity exposure via multiple formats, including over 300 stock and index futures, more than 200 tokenized stocks, and over 7,000 global stocks and ETFs through RealStocks, the exchange said.

This is part of Usi's broader strategy to move MEXC beyond the traditional crypto exchange model.

AI Could Give Retail Traders Institutional-Level Tools

Artificial intelligence featured prominently in the discussion with Usi.

Usi's traditional finance background shapes his view of trading tech. Professional firms have long paid heavily for products like Bloomberg Terminal, as data, communication tools, and analytics can significantly enhance information processing.

Retail traders are naturally at a disadvantage.

Usi thinks AI can narrow that gap by bringing capabilities that once needed specialized software to individual traders at a lower cost.

In his personal trading, Usi said he employs an AI assistant to analyze order books and pinpoint capital concentration, a task difficult for a person to perform continuously across vast market data.

“The opportunity with AI is not just to automate things,” he said, describing its potential to bring institutional-grade trading tools to retail users.

User demand seems to be driving this. Usi said a recent feedback campaign generated over 2,500 pages of responses, with AI being the most frequent topic.

The key question is how far exchanges will extend such assistance. Tools that summarize data, monitor markets, and highlight relevant information can aid traders without eliminating the need for judgment. Alpha Arena showed how different people can interpret the same market even with similar information.

Competition for Trust

Better tools and lower fees matter little if users are uneasy about keeping assets on an exchange, especially after a series of failures and security breaches in crypto.

Usi said transparency has been a priority since he became MEXC CEO in April 2026. His appointment was a return to BeInCrypto, where he was previously CMO before moving to Bitget and then MEXC.

“I don’t want the user to assume trust. I want the user to be comfortable,” he said.

MEXC releases monthly Proof of Reserves reports audited by Hacken. Its August report showed reserve ratios of 115% for USDT, 114% for USDC, and over 100% for other major assets.

MEXC is also growing its Guardian Fund. In May, it announced plans to increase the fund from $100 million to $500 million over two years and purchased 1,000 BTC as part of its reserves.

Separately, the futures insurance fund was about 751 million USDT in August.

Traders Want Different Things, Depending on the Market

The Bali competition also gave MEXC insight into Asia-Pacific traders, where Usi observes different economic incentives than in wealthier markets.

In regions with lower disposable income, a traditional investment yielding a few percent annually may not significantly affect finances. Some traders thus take on much higher risk to seek returns that can make an immediate difference.

In wealthier nations, those with substantial assets may prioritize wealth preservation and steady returns.

“In developing markets, people are more prone to make much riskier, much more leveraged trades,” Usi said, contrasting wealth generation with the greater emphasis on wealth preservation he sees in developed economies.

Usi previously focused on institutional adoption, but said he joined MEXC because of its stronger focus on individual users.

“Retail comes first,” he said, noting that institutional participation is becoming a major source of crypto trading activity and exchanges are expanding products aimed at professional capital.

The Exchange of 2031?

Earlier in his career, Usi thought exchanges would eventually become like banks. Now, he says the reverse has occurred, with banking apps adding investing, crypto, commodities, payments, and more.

“In the next five years … we will be seeing these financial super apps, super platforms, gateways where we can meet all our financial needs in a single place,” he said.

MEXC is already moving toward that model with crypto trading, stock products, yield products, AI tools, and a planned card.

Whether users want all these services from a single provider remains unclear. But it is already evident that crypto exchanges are competing on more than just the number of tokens they offer.

Alpha Arena showed how traders from various countries entered the same market with the same goal but used different strategies and reacted differently to changing conditions.

The exchanges serving them face a similar challenge. Once access is cheap and fees near zero, differentiation must come from elsewhere.