At XT8’s anniversary X Space, the COO argued that the next billion users will come for faster payments, broader access and simpler financial decisions—not for another lesson in blockchain.
The crypto industry has spent years asking how to bring more people on-chain. At XT Exchange’s eighth-anniversary X Space, Arman Achmed suggested a more useful question: what does a person need to accomplish, and where does the experience still make that harder than it should be?
That question shaped “Building for the NeXT Billion: What Can Crypto Make Possible?”, an XT8 discussion hosted by Theo with analysts and creators Fisher, Mr. White and DmiCota. Arman, XT Exchange’s COO, made the case that mass adoption will not begin with a single type of user. Some people already trade but have no reason to use crypto beyond buying and selling. Others need to receive income, move money across borders, preserve value or reach an investment opportunity.
“Knowing how crypto works doesn’t necessarily give you a reason to use it,” Arman said.
The distinction is small in wording but large in product design. It asks exchanges and other operators to start with the user’s task, then work backward through the payment rail, interface and final conversion. A service succeeds when the person can complete the task without having to become an expert in the technology underneath.
Fisher illustrated the point with a freelancer in Africa working for overseas clients. The freelancer’s concern is not the vocabulary of blockchain. It is whether the payment arrives quickly, how much value is lost along the way and whether the money can be used after it arrives.
DmiCota focused on the same gap at the end of the process. A stablecoin may solve the transfer, but a difficult cash-out or off-ramp can leave the recipient with a balance that is technically received and practically stranded. The last step determines whether the first step created value.
Arman applied that test to XT Pay, describing how eligible users in supported markets can use USDT balances through supported merchant payment options. He also outlined the questions operators should ask around any stablecoin flow: what did it cost to acquire the asset, what will conversion cost the recipient, and how long before the money can actually be used? Availability and acceptance vary by market, making the complete journey more important than the headline feature.
The same discipline applies to tokenization. Arman said a product should be judged by its minimum entry point, eligibility, usability and exit or redemption path. A tokenized fund and a futures contract may reference a similar asset while giving users different rights and purposes. For XT Exchange’s RWA zone and TradFi futures offering, the relevant question is therefore not simply whether an instrument is new, but whether a user can understand the choice and act on it.
Mr. White added a market lens to the product discussion. Stablecoin inflows, spot activity and assets moving on-chain can help distinguish fresh liquidity from money rotating among existing participants. DmiCota’s user lens supplied the corresponding behavioral test: people should return because the service worked, not because a campaign briefly caught their attention.
That is where Arman placed the most durable measure of adoption. “It would be seeing more people come back because something worked for an ordinary need,” he said.
For XT Exchange, the next billion is therefore not an audience waiting to be persuaded by better slogans. It is a set of people with specific financial problems. The companies that earn their return will be the ones that make those problems easier to solve—and let the technology fade from view once the job is done.
Editorial note: This article is an editorial recap of XT Exchange’s 2026-09-23 XT8 anniversary X Space. It is not financial advice.
About XT Exchange
Founded in 2018, XT Exchange is a global digital asset trading platform serving more than 12 million registered users across over 200 countries and regions. Its services span spot, margin and futures trading, TradFi market exposure, a real-world asset marketplace, and everyday payments through XT Pay. Guided by Xplore Crypto Trade with Trust, XT Exchange enters its ninth year with Build the NeXT, reflecting its focus on trust, broader market access, and practical uses for digital assets.
