📊 Now LIVE: RWA Report 2024
Coins: 13,536
Exchanges: 1,031
Market Cap: $2.796T 2.6%
24h Vol: $120.154B
Gas: 33 GWEI
Go Ad-free

Interview with Ben He Bin, Founder and CEO of imToken

by Bobby Ong

CoinGecko had the good opportunity to interview Ben He Bin, founder and CEO of imToken. imToken is a leading digital asset wallet in the blockchain space. imToken recently also launched Tokenlon, a decentralized exchange (DEX) that has since been spun out of imToken. 

With more than ten years of experience in Internet product design and development, Ben is an early member of a blockchain technology research team, which founded a series of successful blockchain startups. Ben started paying attention to Bitcoin back in 2013 and a year later, the Ethereum platform. He has previously worked with digital currency exchanges, data storage entities, and is currently focusing on smart contract technology and digital asset management.

1. What inspired you to start imToken?

We started imToken with a small group of people, back in 2016, when Ethereum was still in its early days. We wanted to offer people access to this new and exciting land of possibilities: sending tokens and owning crypto on their own devices.

In the very beginning imToken was only a wallet to send and receive ETH and ERC20 tokens. At that time, blockchain was still widely unknown in Asia. But that changed quickly in the following years. Now, 3 and a half years later, we are offering more features and access to more blockchains to our users.

2. How many users do you have on imToken and how has your growth been since launch? 

We currently have one million people actively using our apps, most of which are based in Asia and the US.

We did start pretty early, even before the ICO boom of 2017. Back then, people had a limited amount of blockchains and tokens to choose from. The first interesting tokens started to be issued on Ethereum, and our users came looking for an easy, secure way to store those tokens. What they wanted most was a secure storage for their tokens on their own phones, instead of some exchanges that may get hacked.

With the rally in crypto prices in 2017, crypto came into mainstream attention in Asia as well. Our early users have simply advertised our app to their friends. And, just like that, our download numbers grew pretty steadily to the first 1 million in 2017. Our active users peaked around  the peak in crypto markets. Since then, we more or less have a steady million monthly active users.

What has changed since is the demand for more blockchains and more sophisticated use cases such as lending, non-custodial trading on DEXs, and decentralized games.

3. Do you plan to support more blockchains on imToken? 

We have a couple of blockchains in the pipeline. That’s as much I can say: You will like it.

4. What are some of the most popular dApps in China and on imToken?

Games, DEXs and DeFi are all popular in China, similar to other countries. However, there are China-specific dApps that we can see being popular with our users. The most popular dApp is Mixmarvel’s Hypersnake, which is a snake-style crypto game, and Hyperdragon by the same creators. That’s followed by DeFi dApps, such as MakerDAO’s DAI dApp and a couple of DEXs. Some other dApps that are popular right now: the Multisender app for sending airdrops. People are actually using that dApp to send airdrops in imToken, on mobile.

5. Is DeFi gaining traction in China? What have you learned from recent developments?

In China, just like anywhere else, centralized crypto finance is more popular. However, we currently see a couple of DeFi projects being used, one of which is Compound

We first integrated Compound into our dApp browser, but quickly realized the popularity and offered the dApp within the DeFi manager, a more popular place within the app. And with that, Compound’s user numbers jumped accordingly. Then, there are local dApps that specifically carter to the Chinese market, such as DDEX, who recently started supporting USDT, which is especially popular in China.

We also realized how important localizing DeFi dApps for China is. For example, we helped a couple of DeFi dApps, including MakerDAO and Kyber Network, to market within China, and we supported other dApps with translations. You can guess, having translated into local language helped to increase popularity.

While DeFi applications have more recently gained traction, DEXs have been popular for a while. We integrated both DEXs and other DeFi applications in our DeFi manager.

6. In the imToken app, there is a DeFi manager that pays interest on imBTC to users. How do you earn the revenue to pay interest to users? 

With the DeFi manager, we try to offer the most popular DeFi features in one view: Tokenlon as the decentralized exchange, Cosmos for staking, Compound for lending, and imBTC for income on bitcoin holdings.

imBTC is a token pegged 1:1 with bitcoin. With imBTC, you also receive payouts in imBTC. The payouts result from the following sources: 

  1. Fees paid by Tokenlon users for purchasing imBTC

  2. Handling fees paid by users for redemption of BTC

The bitcoin can be redeemed from the custodian with imBTC, and the holdings are verifiable on chain.

7. Why did you start Tokenlon?

Tokenlon was started by imToken, and has since been spun out of the company. In short, the original motivation to build Tokenlon was to build a DEX that is usable and fast. With Tokenlon, you don’t need to deposit tokens, trade, and then withdraw, but can instantly trade and receive tokens. Tokenlon also brings security, which is the promise of atomic swaps: either the trade goes through, and you receive your token, or your token stays in your wallet. In short, it is not possibile for a hack of your tokens like in all the centralized exchanges.

As a plus, Tokenlon is designed in a way to provide good prices which are locked-in before every trade, unlike other DEXs which give you price estimates only.

8. Where do you see the future of imToken and Tokenlon? 

If there is one thing that is certain, then it’s the uncertainty of the crypto ecosystem.

Seriously though, we see a few trends for the coming year. One is DeFi, which will continue to grow, and the other one is cross-chain. Our focus will always be on providing a secure wallet that is easy to use. And our roadmap is built on that foundation.

9. Are you launching any other new products in the coming months? 

Both imBTC and Tokenlon are big focus for the Tokenlon team. And, regarding chain integrations, there’s so much we can tell: After EOS and Cosmos, we are currently working on adding support for a lot more blockchains. Stay tuned!

Tell us how much you like this article!
Bobby Ong
Bobby Ong

Bobby is the co-founder of CoinGecko, a cryptocurrency ranking website that gives a 360 degree overview of cryptocurrencies. Follow the author on Twitter @bobbyong

More Articles

coingecko
Continue in app
Track prices in real-time
Open App
Select Currency
Suggested Currencies
USD
US Dollar
IDR
Indonesian Rupiah
TWD
New Taiwan Dollar
EUR
Euro
KRW
South Korean Won
JPY
Japanese Yen
RUB
Russian Ruble
CNY
Chinese Yuan
Fiat Currencies
AED
United Arab Emirates Dirham
ARS
Argentine Peso
AUD
Australian Dollar
BDT
Bangladeshi Taka
BHD
Bahraini Dinar
BMD
Bermudian Dollar
BRL
Brazil Real
CAD
Canadian Dollar
CHF
Swiss Franc
CLP
Chilean Peso
CZK
Czech Koruna
DKK
Danish Krone
GBP
British Pound Sterling
GEL
Georgian Lari
HKD
Hong Kong Dollar
HUF
Hungarian Forint
ILS
Israeli New Shekel
INR
Indian Rupee
KWD
Kuwaiti Dinar
LKR
Sri Lankan Rupee
MMK
Burmese Kyat
MXN
Mexican Peso
MYR
Malaysian Ringgit
NGN
Nigerian Naira
NOK
Norwegian Krone
NZD
New Zealand Dollar
PHP
Philippine Peso
PKR
Pakistani Rupee
PLN
Polish Zloty
SAR
Saudi Riyal
SEK
Swedish Krona
SGD
Singapore Dollar
THB
Thai Baht
TRY
Turkish Lira
UAH
Ukrainian hryvnia
VEF
Venezuelan bolívar fuerte
VND
Vietnamese đồng
ZAR
South African Rand
XDR
IMF Special Drawing Rights
Cryptocurrencies
BTC
Bitcoin
ETH
Ether
LTC
Litecoin
BCH
Bitcoin Cash
BNB
Binance Coin
EOS
EOS
XRP
XRP
XLM
Lumens
LINK
Chainlink
DOT
Polkadot
YFI
Yearn.finance
Bitcoin Units
BITS
Bits
SATS
Satoshi
Commodities
XAG
Silver - Troy Ounce
XAU
Gold - Troy Ounce
Select Language
Popular Languages
EN
English
RU
Русский
DE
Deutsch
PL
język polski
ES
Español
VI
Tiếng việt
FR
Français
PT
Português
All Languages
AR
العربية
BG
български
CS
čeština
DA
dansk
EL
Ελληνικά
FI
suomen kieli
HE
עִבְרִית
HI
हिंदी
HR
hrvatski
HU
Magyar nyelv
ID
Bahasa Indonesia
IT
Italiano
JA
日本語
KO
한국어
LT
lietuvių kalba
NL
Nederlands
NO
norsk
RO
Limba română
SK
slovenský jazyk
SL
slovenski jezik
SV
Svenska
TH
ภาษาไทย
TR
Türkçe
UK
украї́нська мо́ва
ZH
简体中文
ZH-TW
繁體中文
Login to track your favorite coin easily 🚀
By continuing, you agree to CoinGecko Terms of Service and acknowledge you’ve read our Privacy Policy
or
Forgot your password?
Didn't receive confirmation instructions?
Resend confirmation instructions
IT'S FREE! Track your favorite coin easily with CoinGecko 🚀
By continuing, you agree to CoinGecko Terms of Service and acknowledge you’ve read our Privacy Policy
or
Password must contain at least 8 characters including 1 uppercase letter, 1 lowercase letter, 1 number, and 1 special character
Didn't receive confirmation instructions?
Resend confirmation instructions
Forgot your password?
You will receive an email with instructions on how to reset your password in a few minutes.
Resend confirmation instructions
You will receive an email with instructions for how to confirm your email address in a few minutes.
Get the CoinGecko app.
Scan this QR code to download the app now App QR Code Or check it out in the app stores