Bobby Ong

CoinGecko co-founder and CEO, with a background in economics and cryptocurrency data.

Bobby Ong co-founded CoinGecko to make cryptocurrency markets easier to follow. What began as a small coin-tracking website developed into a broader data business serving individual users and software developers. After more than a decade as chief operating officer, he became CEO in August 2025, taking responsibility for the company’s next stage of development.

From economics to an interest in Bitcoin

Ong graduated from University College London in 2012 with a degree in economics. His introduction to cryptocurrency came the following year, when he encountered discussions about Bitcoin on Hacker News while learning to code.

In a later interview, he described reading the Bitcoin whitepaper and researching how the technology worked. For someone with an economics background, it raised questions about money and the infrastructure used to move it.

That interest eventually became a business. Together with TM Lee, Ong saw an opportunity to make cryptocurrency market information easier to find and understand.

Starting CoinGecko with a small list of coins

Ong and Lee founded CoinGecko in April 2014. According to Ong’s account of its early days, the website initially tracked just 20 coins.

Their starting point was straightforward: create a useful place to follow the market. As more projects appeared, comparing them required more than checking a price on one exchange. Users needed information they could examine across assets and trading venues.

CoinGecko’s scope grew to include prices, trading volumes, market capitalization, contract addresses and other project information. Its contribution was to bring these details together in a format people could use when researching the market.

Looking beyond the headline price

A market-data platform has to decide how to handle the information it receives. Reported trading volume, for example, does not always give a complete picture of how actively or reliably a market trades.

CoinGecko introduced Trust Score in May 2019 to address concerns around exchange-volume data. Its methodology considers factors such as liquidity, trading activity and web traffic when evaluating trading pairs.

This work helps explain the business Ong helped build. CoinGecko’s value depends on how it organizes and assesses information, as well as how much information it collects. A ranking can support research, but it should not be treated as a guarantee about an exchange or an investment.

Following crypto activity onto decentralized exchanges

The CoinGecko team launched GeckoTerminal in 2021 to track trading activity on decentralized exchanges. It provides information about prices, transactions, trading volumes and liquidity pools.

This expanded the company’s coverage into markets where activity happens directly through blockchain-based protocols. Across ecosystems such as Ethereum, a token may trade through multiple pools, each with its own liquidity and transaction history.

GeckoTerminal gives users a closer view of those individual markets. Its development also illustrates how the company’s data products have evolved alongside the places where people trade.

Moving from COO to CEO

On August 18, 2025, CoinGecko announced that Ong would become chief executive, succeeding TM Lee, who moved into the President role.

The announcement credited Ong’s work as COO with helping develop the company’s business strategy, operations and international presence. It also outlined plans to expand enterprise services and the developer ecosystem.

The change formalized a new division of responsibilities between the co-founders. Ong took the chief executive position, while Lee’s role shifted toward long-term product direction and research.

Building services around the data platform

CoinGecko’s work now extends beyond its public website. Its data API allows other businesses and developers to incorporate cryptocurrency information into their own products.

In April 2026, the company introduced its Partner Platform, bringing together tools for crypto projects to manage listings, submit information updates and access promotional services.

These developments place Ong’s current role at the intersection of consumer information and business infrastructure. The company serves people looking up a coin as well as teams building products around market data. Keeping that information useful and clearly presented remains central to the business.