Bobby Ong

Bobby Ong is the co founder of CoinGecko, a leading cryptocurrency data and analytics platform that tracks thousands of digital assets across centralized and decentralized exchanges worldwide. As a Malaysian based entrepreneur and long time senior executive at CoinGecko, Ong has played a key role in standardizing how market participants access price, liquidity, and fundamental data for assets such as Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH). His work sits at the intersection of data transparency, research, and education in the digital asset ecosystem.

Early Life and Education

Ong grew up in Southeast Asia and later pursued his studies in the United Kingdom. He earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Economics from University College London, where he developed a grounding in macroeconomics, financial markets, and quantitative analysis. This training provided the framework he would later apply to evaluating crypto assets, with an emphasis on fundamentals and market structure rather than short term price movements.

After graduating, Ong returned to the region and began his professional career in marketing and technology. The combination of economic literacy, digital product interest, and exposure to global markets shaped his perspective on how emerging technologies like cryptocurrencies could change access to financial services and information.

Pre CoinGecko Career and Entry into Crypto

Before launching CoinGecko, Ong worked as a digital marketing manager at Sime Darby Property Berhad, a major Malaysian property developer. In that role he was responsible for online campaigns, analytics, and customer acquisition, which gave him first hand experience in leveraging data to understand user behavior and improve digital products.

Ong was introduced to Bitcoin around 2013, initially through technology news communities and the original whitepaper. He has described being drawn to Bitcoin as a response to financial system fragilities revealed in earlier crises, and he began to study blockchain technology, early exchanges, and the growing number of alternative cryptocurrencies. These explorations highlighted to him how fragmented, inconsistent, and in some cases unreliable crypto market data still was at the time.

Founding and Building CoinGecko

In April 2014, Ong co founded CoinGecko with TM Lee as a side project that aimed to bring more structure and transparency to the rapidly expanding crypto market. The platform started by tracking only a small set of coins but differentiated itself by taking a “360 degree” approach to asset evaluation, combining price and volume data with indicators such as developer activity, community engagement, and liquidity.

Ong and his co founder chose to bootstrap CoinGecko from Kuala Lumpur rather than raise venture capital in traditional tech hubs. In interviews with CryptoSlate, Ong has explained that staying lean, keeping day jobs in the early years, and building in a lower cost jurisdiction allowed the team to survive multiple crypto bear markets without the pressure of short fundraising cycles. This cautious approach to spending and hiring helped CoinGecko operate continuously through extended downturns that forced many early competitors to shut down.

Under Ong’s leadership, CoinGecko grew into one of the largest independent cryptocurrency data aggregators, serving tens of millions of users and supporting a broad range of use cases. Beyond the consumer website, CoinGecko offers an API used by exchanges, wallets, portfolio trackers, research firms, and other infrastructure providers that integrate real time and historical data into their own products.

Research, Writing, and Public Engagement

In addition to his operational role at CoinGecko, Ong is active in academic and policy adjacent work. He has contributed chapters to two widely cited reference volumes on digital assets, the “Handbook of Digital Currency” and the “Handbook of Blockchain, Digital Finance, and Inclusion”. These contributions focus on how crypto markets function, how data can be used to assess projects, and what risks and opportunities tokenization introduces for investors and regulators.

Ong has also served as a research fellow at the Singapore University of Social Sciences, where he engages in research and teaching related to blockchain and financial innovation. He is a frequent speaker at industry conferences and has appeared in interviews, including a detailed CryptoSlate interview on building CoinGecko and eschewing venture capital, where he discusses team building, product decisions, and the importance of independent data in crypto.

Role in the Digital Asset Ecosystem

CoinGecko’s position as a neutral data layer has made Ong an important voice in discussions about transparency and market integrity. Aggregated metrics such as exchange trust scores, trading volume quality, and on chain activity are widely referenced by analysts, media outlets, and institutional desks. Ong has emphasized the need to detect practices such as wash trading and to clearly label the limitations of available data so that users understand what the numbers do and do not capture.

Through regular market reports, educational content, and commentary on topics like stablecoins, decentralized finance, and risk management, Ong seeks to bridge the gap between crypto native communities and newer participants. His work is often framed around helping users make more informed decisions in a market that remains volatile, experimental, and heavily narrative driven.

Risks and Considerations

While CoinGecko and similar platforms have improved access to information, Ong has repeatedly noted that data aggregation does not remove the fundamental risks of investing in digital assets. Metrics can be incomplete, methodologies can evolve over time, and on chain activity may be difficult to interpret without context. Users relying on CoinGecko data are encouraged to combine it with independent research, especially for illiquid tokens or complex decentralized finance instruments.

Key Milestones

• 2012, Graduated with a BSc in Economics from University College London.
• 2013, First exposure to Bitcoin and blockchain technology, leading to deeper research into crypto markets.
• 2014, Co founded CoinGecko as an independent cryptocurrency data and analytics platform.
• 2014–2017, Bootstrapped CoinGecko while working in digital marketing, building the platform through multiple market cycles.
• 2018 onward, Contributed chapters to major reference works on digital currencies and blockchain finance.
• Ongoing, Serves as a research fellow and frequent industry speaker, advocating for transparent, methodology driven crypto market data.

• CoinGecko COO & Co-Founder
• Singapore University of Social Sciences Fellow
• Sime Darby Property Berhad Digital Marketing Manager