Bitget CEO Gracy Chen declared on Monday that the exchange intends to enter the United States market, legislation or not. Speaking to The Block, Chen stated the push will proceed "with or without" the CLARITY Act passing into law. The announcement marks the clearest commitment yet from the exchange, which has blocked US retail users from its platform since at least 2022. Chen, who became CEO in May 2024, has presided over the period in which Bitget grew from 20 million to over 100 million users, lending credibility to her expansion commitments.

No License Yet, But the Groundwork Is Visible

Bitget has not filed any formal US licensing application, announced a local entity, or named a partner as of this writing. But the strategic signals have been accumulating for months. On July 3, 2026, Bitget launched US stock options trading, billing itself as the only major crypto platform to offer crypto, contracts for difference (CFDs), and US equity options under a single interface. Chen framed the move as part of a broader "convergence" strategy: "We have consistently moved first to connect stock opportunities with our users... from tokenized stocks to now options, we are executing on convergence."

In December 2024, Chen had floated a joint-venture approach as the most practical route into the US, citing the exchange's earlier UK market entry via a partnership with licensed trading firm Archax as a template. "If we had a local partner who has many of those licenses already, then we could do a joint venture," she said at the time. "So we don't need to go through all the applications." That model would sidestep the expensive and time-consuming process of obtaining state-by-state money transmitter licenses and New York's BitLicense, which Chen previously described as carrying "ridiculously high" legal costs. Bitget does hold a FinCEN US Money Services Business (MSB) registration, an existing regulatory foothold that does not permit retail exchange operations and falls well short of the licenses needed to serve American customers directly.

What the CLARITY Act Would Actually Change

The CLARITY Act (H.R. 3633) is bipartisan legislation that passed the House and cleared the Senate Banking Committee by a 15 to 9 vote on May 14, 2026. It has not yet been signed into law. If enacted, the bill would draw a clearer jurisdictional line between the SEC and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), giving the CFTC exclusive authority over spot markets for assets classified as "digital commodities" while preserving SEC oversight of investment contracts. It would also require centralized platforms to meet registration, custody, anti-money-laundering, anti-fraud, and cybersecurity standards. Regulatory implementation, including SEC and CFTC rulemaking, is expected to take up to 18 months after enactment. Because the bill has not yet passed the full Senate or received a presidential signature as of July 2026, full federal clarity is unlikely before mid-to-late 2028 at the earliest. Chen's "with or without" framing suggests Bitget does not plan to wait that long.

Exchange Scale and Token Context

Bitget's growth in 2024 gives some weight to the ambition. The exchange grew its user base from 20 million to over 100 million users during that calendar year, a 400% increase, reaching second place globally by user count. Daily trading volume peaked at around $20 billion, with spot volume rising from $160 billion in Q1 2024 to $600 billion in Q4 2024.

BGB, Bitget's native utility and governance token, was trading at approximately $1.64 to $1.67 as of mid-July 2026, with a market capitalization of roughly $1.16 billion to $1.40 billion. Daily trading volume for BGB ranged between $5.8 million and $13.9 million across reporting sources. The token sits around rank 59 to 81 on CoinMarketCap depending on the snapshot.

What This Means Outside the United States

For users in South Asia and Africa, the US story is secondary to activity already underway. Bitget Wallet, a separate non-custodial product, reached 100 million users in July 2026. Payment users on the wallet now outnumber active traders, a first for the platform. The wallet's physical card product has been issued to more than 150,000 users across 50-plus markets, with $31 million in global spending recorded in H1 2026, up 191% from the second half of 2025. Emerging market card spending grew 416% over the same period.

In Africa, where industry-wide peer-to-peer crypto trading volumes exceed $8 billion per month, Bitget Wallet saw 413% quarterly growth in Q3 2024. South Asia grew 200% for the year. These figures reflect infrastructure that operates independently of the US licensing question and is already displacing remittance corridors where, according to World Bank Remittance Prices Worldwide data, fees on routes such as Nigeria to the UK typically range between 5 and 8%.

A formal US license would, however, carry weight in those regions. Analysts and compliance practitioners argue that multi-jurisdictional compliance credibility tends to accelerate conversations with local regulators. In India, Bitget was in active discussions with the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) for VASP registration as of mid-2024; the current status of that application has not been confirmed as of this writing. In Kenya, new VASP regulations under the 2025 Virtual Asset Service Providers Act are being finalized in 2026, and Bitget does not yet hold a Kenyan license.

What Comes Next

The practical timeline for Bitget's US entry depends almost entirely on whether it pursues a partnership or attempts direct licensing. The partnership route, as Chen suggested in December 2024, could compress the timeline considerably. A direct application would likely take years. For now, the exchange is signaling intent without locking in method. The CLARITY Act's Senate floor vote, whenever it occurs, will set the regulatory baseline that either route must comply with. Until then, Chen's statement functions more as market positioning than operational commitment.