He Yi Hong Kong Community Q&A Full Record: Reflections on Trust, Users, and the Next Round of Opportunities

During a recent community event held by BNB in Hong Kong, co-founder He Yi engaged in an open and honest conversation with community partners from around the world, focusing on industry trends, personal growth, and investment philosophies. The entire exchange was free-form, without stiff “official sharing,” allowing many long-time followers of BNB and new partners to get a close look at her genuine thoughts on Web3, the crypto industry, and life choices.

Trust and Community: The Most Important “Protagonist”

Before entering the Q&A session, He Yi first expressed her gratitude to the attendees. She emphasized that the true “main stage” is not the project team, but every user and community member involved; it is these people who make up BNB’s present and future.

She repeatedly mentioned the word “trust.” She believes trust is the most precious thing in the world, a process of mutual support, mutual trust, and mutual fulfillment. The platform’s role is to empower users and partners as much as possible, live up to everyone’s trust, and enable those walking together to become stronger in investment and personal growth, heading toward a broader world.

In her view, a truly healthy community is not just one that cheers during good market conditions, but a community that can support and achieve each other over long cycles.

Four Keys to Success: Courage, Cognition, Execution, and “Invisibility”

When discussing “how individuals can seize opportunities in the tide of the times,” He Yi admitted that she has lost some of her desire to express herself in recent years because many principles have already been spoken about by predecessors, and many things have been done countless times. But she still shared a framework she strongly agrees with: for someone to truly stand out, they need at least four qualities—courage, cognition, execution, and “invisibility.”

Among these four, she especially emphasizes that “courage” is the top priority. Many people have grand goals and dreams, good educational backgrounds and resumes, but lack the courage to take the first step. “Many say successful people are ‘unprincipled’ or use many tricks, but often the real dividing line is whether some people dare to take the first step, while others stay stuck in place.”

Cognition and execution relate to whether a person is willing to keep learning, adjust their judgments, and turn ideas into actions. The “invisibility” she mentions is a trait often avoided in Eastern culture but actually exists—it’s not simply utilitarian, but a comprehensive grasp of resources, luck, timing, and other complex factors. She believes that both men and women should not be shy about this topic; as long as they are honest with themselves and others, they need not shy away from the idea that “success requires external factors.”

Women’s Growth: First Be a Tree, Then Talk About “Healthy Relationships”

A listener at the scene asked He Yi: How do you view the influence of public opinion on women’s growth? What does “healthy relationships” really mean for women’s personal development?

He Yi pointed out that many people today have a strong urge to label successful women—“Are you male or female?” She joked that she is “the male among males, the female among females,” but quickly brought the topic back to the essence: regardless of gender labels, the most important thing is “Who are you, and what kind of person do you want to become?”

She used “being a tree” as a metaphor for mature individuals: a tree means you are strong enough to support your own weight and not easily toppled by external winds. When you are stable and strong enough, the so-called “healthy relationships” are just an important part of life, not the entire source of meaning.

She also used a simple image: sand slips away the tighter you hold it. Instead of clutching tightly to what doesn’t belong to you, it’s better to first become a more complete person—when you naturally extend your hand, the sand will stay in your palm rather than rushing out through your fingers.

Whether at the peak or in the valley, she values most whether a person can honestly face themselves and has a clear self-awareness. This clarity ultimately determines one’s stability in relationships, career, and life choices.

Protecting Users: Not Deifying, Not Shifting Responsibility

During the event, a listener mentioned some stories about her “protecting users” and asked her to share her thoughts behind them.

He Yi admitted that she is someone who easily “empathizes” with users. Whenever she sees someone lose a huge amount of funds due to a mistake, she imagines “what if I were them, would I fall into despair?” When she has the ability and space, she is willing to take on more for users and help shoulder some risks.

But she also clearly pointed out that “protecting users” does not mean everyone will make money in the market—that’s an impossible task. True protection is based on “empathy” and understanding: the platform should make correct decisions within a reasonable business logic, and strive to create a fairer, more transparent, and safer environment for more users with a long-term perspective.

She hopes that through small choices, the industry’s “water level” can be raised—only when the industry pond grows larger will the platform’s profits naturally follow, rather than sacrificing user trust for short-term gains.

From Exchanges to Global Financial Infrastructure

Talking about BNB’s development, He Yi once again emphasized that the team’s understanding of their role has long surpassed that of a “digital asset exchange.”

Currently, the platform’s product line covers spot trading, commodities, and some on-chain derivatives. She hopes BNB will gradually grow into one of the “global financial infrastructure” providers, not just limited to matching trades. As of now, the platform has 300 million registered users, but their internal goal is to “increase tenfold” to 3 billion users—future users should include not only traders but also people using stablecoins for daily payments and a broader range of users engaging in financial management and services with digital assets.

In her vision, trading is just one option within the entire financial service system, not the whole picture. Only when products are truly embedded in everyday life can the digital asset industry be said to have “moved into everyone’s life.”

Web3 and Compliance: Role Division and Long-termism

Regarding internal management division at BNB, He Yi also shared openly. She said that founder CZ set the cultural and value tone for the organization early on, which is the foundation for BNB’s current success. But since 2023, he has completely stepped back from daily platform management.

Currently, the team has a clear division of responsibilities: she mainly handles users, products, HR, and organizational matters; while CEO Richard focuses on regulation and compliance, leading the team to apply for licenses in more countries and regions worldwide, establishing the industry’s “gold standard.”

In her view, BNB is more like a “rainforest”: maintaining enough freedom within the organization to attract talented people from around the world with different “superpowers” to expand boundaries. The compliance team paves the way and builds bridges, while the user and product teams continuously inject new value and vitality into this path.

For newcomers wanting to transition from traditional industries into Web3, especially in compliance, her advice is very pragmatic: don’t obsess over titles, first join an organization with a complete compliance framework, even starting from basic roles; as long as you keep learning and gaining experience, those with traditional finance backgrounds will quickly find that “many systems are interconnected,” and one understanding leads to another.

Opportunities for Ordinary People: Stability Over “Riches”

During the event, many participants raised a similar question: Web3 industry seems to have created many “legendary stories,” but what is the truly applicable path for most ordinary people?

In answering such questions, He Yi’s attitude was both frank and calm. She acknowledged that any emerging industry in its early days offers excess returns—early entrants in crypto or AI, for example, can potentially earn far more than average by riding the wave.

But she also pointed out a often-overlooked reality: many who made big money early on might also lose it in the next cycle, or fall into anxiety and confusion. The reason is often not “bad luck,” but that they have never truly built deep understanding and structural knowledge of the industry—only driven by emotions and FOMO.

In her view, a more sustainable path for ordinary people is similar to Buffett’s advocated approach: holding quality assets at reasonable prices, and extending the time horizon to let compound interest work. This means:

Most assets should be allocated to relatively stable top-tier assets, like mainstream coins or high-quality assets;

Use only a small portion of funds that can withstand losses to participate in high-risk projects;

Set clear stop-loss levels for yourself, and strictly separate “practice trading and speculation” funds from “funds for daily life and long-term security.”

In other words, what truly determines how far “ordinary people can go” is not whether they hit a 100x coin once, but whether they are willing to take responsibility for their cognition and decisions, continuously iterate, and not leave their fate to gambling.

On Meme Coins: Don’t Deceive Yourself, Don’t Shift Blame

When asked about meme coins, He Yi did not give a simple “support or oppose” answer but emphasized a deeper principle: cognition and responsibility.

She pointed out that the existence of meme coins is “reasonable,” but the problem is that many people just create a group of a few hundred people, shout buy signals, and start fantasizing that the project can easily reach hundreds of millions or billions in market cap, completely ignoring how much effort it takes for a real enterprise or a useful AI product to reach the same scale.

She also clarified that some popular tokens on the platform are included in trading lists because the community already has demand and activity, not because she personally endorses them. BSC is a public chain and cannot endorse every project on it; just as no one expects the Ethereum Foundation to be responsible for every project that fails on Ethereum.

She reminds all participants:

Don’t expect high-risk speculation to be “platform protected”;

Don’t be blinded by the “100x myth,” and don’t blame others for all losses;

Before making any investment, ask yourself: “What am I really gambling on? Do I truly understand what this project is doing?”

A truly mature investor never fully outsources responsibility to any platform or so-called “big shot,” because cognition and decision-making are ultimately responsibilities only they can bear.

For Those Still in the Valley: Don’t Be Afraid

Near the end of the event, someone asked her: “If you could say one thing to everyone going through a low point, what would it be?”

She gave three words: “Don’t be afraid.”

Behind this phrase is her fundamental attitude toward the world—if you see the world as hell, you see demons everywhere; if you see it as heaven, angels will start appearing around you. Being with positive, proactive people will make you change unconsciously; distancing yourself from those who make you unhappy allows you to focus your limited energy on things and relationships worth investing in.

She didn’t package this phrase as an inspirational quote but used her own story and long-term practice to give a gentler but powerful footnote: what truly supports someone to emerge from a low point is not external applause or a stroke of luck, but long-term accumulated courage, cognition, execution, and the ability to “take root” in the real world.