Bitget Targets U.S. Entry by 2027 Despite CLARITY Act Collapse

Bitget, the world's sixth-largest crypto exchange by trading volume, plans to enter the U.S. market by 2027 — whether or not U.S. lawmakers ever pass the CLARITY Act. "With or without the CLARITY Act, entering the U.S. market is part of our company's long-term strategy," CEO Gracy Chen told Fortune. "We are heading towards it, little by little."

The timing matters. The CLARITY Act, which would have set clearer rules for cryptocurrencies and digital assets, died in the U.S. Senate last month after it failed to get the 60 votes needed to overcome a filibuster. Senate Democrats had raised conflict-of-interest concerns — specifically that President Donald Trump and other senior government officials might profit from personal cryptocurrency ventures.

Chen doesn't read the bill's failure as a setback. "Since early 2025, the general vibe around crypto regulation [in the U.S.] has been much more friendly," she said.

What does the U.S. push look like in practice?

Bitget plans to launch a U.S. website next year. A small local team is already applying for licenses, and Chen travels to the U.S. roughly quarterly to meet regulators and partners.

"It's a market that I think has long-term value," she said. "Short-term, I'm aware that we need to invest a lot. We're not rushing ourselves—we have our pace."

How is Bitget recovering from the $388 million hack?

The expansion push comes while the exchange is still rebuilding trust after a September breach. Hackers stole nearly $388 million from Bitget through vulnerabilities in third-party products — the largest hack in the crypto industry by far this year.

"Some users decided to leave the platform. It's not a big number—it's not significant—but they're people that I want to win back," Chen said. "Asset security is their number one concern."

Bitget has since rebuilt and revoked all the credentials involved in the incident. It reviewed the third-party vulnerabilities that let the hackers in, and it shared incident details with outside investigators including Mandiant and SlowMist so the industry can learn from the attack.

The exchange is also leaning on AI in its cybersecurity work. "Human beings have a limit: we get tired and we need to sleep," Chen argued. "But AI can read code more easily and at a larger scale… so we're using it in our monitoring, and in our defenses against fraud and money laundering."

Chen is meeting clients in person to shore up confidence. "The incident is something that [our users have] brought up a lot," she admitted. "This afternoon, right after this interview, I'm going to visit an institutional client at their office—hopefully, we can clear those concerns."

She acknowledges the crypto industry remains "very targeted by hackers," but says the breach reaffirmed her view that exchanges have to learn to protect users from financial losses in the event of an attack. Bitget launched a protection fund in 2022 to safeguard user assets against extreme market events or security breaches not caused by user misconduct. After the hack, the exchange drew on the fund to cover compromised wallets, then topped it back up with more than $300 million from its own reserves.

"I'm sad that we needed to use it, but I'm so glad that we had this protection fund, to assure users that a hack like this can be totally borne by the platform," Chen said.

Thailand first — then an IPO?

The hack hasn't slowed the deal machine. On Oct. 20, Bitget announced it would enter Thailand through a planned acquisition of Bangkok-based digital asset exchange GMO-Z.com Cryptonomics. Chen says the company is also eyeing Indonesia and Vietnam.

"Many jurisdictions in Southeast Asia have rolled out crypto-related regulations 2025 and 2026," she said. "For Asia in general, if there are good licensing schemes and partners, we're interested in at least having a chat."

Two Asian financial centers are off the list, though. "Singapore is a relatively small market, and compliance cost is pretty high," Chen said of Singapore, and she similarly passed on Hong Kong.

She is also looking to take Bitget public, with an IPO planned within the next five years.

"I would say tian shi, di li, ren he," Chen concluded, citing a Chinese idiom for the right timing, the right place, and the right people. "We need good conditions and a crypto-friendly environment in order to function."

A U.S. launch by 2027, a Thailand acquisition closed and an IPO filing inside five years: that's the slate Chen has now put on the record.