Copy trading experience
for beginner-intermediate crypto users
Copy trading experience for beginner-intermediate crypto users
OVERVIEW
OVERVIEW
Copy trading launched from 0 to 1 with friction minimized from discovery to first copy
Copy trading launched from 0 to 1 with friction minimized from discovery to first copy
Copy trading isn't new to crypto exchanges, but Flipster needed a version built for a different audience. To drive first trades among new users, I designed an experience tailored to beginners and intermediate traders, rather than replicating what major exchanges already offered. Grounded in global user research across four Asian markets, the launch exceeded targets and the feature continues to scale.
Copy trading isn't new to crypto exchanges, but Flipster needed a version built for a different audience. To drive first trades among new users, I designed an experience tailored to beginners and intermediate traders, rather than replicating what major exchanges already offered. Grounded in global user research across four Asian markets, the launch exceeded targets and the feature continues to scale.
Dec 2025 – Mar 2026
Product Designer
Dec 2025 – Mar 2026
Product Designer
0-to-1 Product Design // User Research // Stakeholder Interviews // Usability Testing // Cross-functional Alignment
0-to-1 Product Design // User Research // Stakeholder Interviews // Usability Testing // Cross-functional Alignment
Collaborated with
Copy Trading Squad & 3 Non-tech Teams
Collaborated with
Copy Trading Squad
& 3 Non-tech Teams
Collaborated with
Copy Trading Squad & 3 Non-tech Teams
Worked with one Android, iOS, Web, and Backend engineer each, a PM, and one fellow Product Designer, alongside Legal, Compliance, and BD teams to ensure regulatory alignment and gather regional market insights.
Worked with one Android, iOS, Web, and Backend engineer each, a PM, and one fellow Product Designer, alongside Legal, Compliance, and BD teams to ensure regulatory alignment and gather regional market insights.
IMPACT
IMPACT
86% of copy slots filled at launch, driving 13% of daily volume with users investing 1.5x more than other exchanges
86% of copy slots filled at launch, driving 13% of daily volume with users investing 1.5x more than other exchanges
Share of daily trading volume
13%
Copy slots filled at first launch
86%
Avg. copy margin vs. major exchanges
Share of daily
trading volume
Share of daily trading volume
1.5x
13%
13%
Copy slots filled at first launch
86%
Copy slots filled
at first launch
86%
Avg. copy margin vs. major exchanges
1.5x
Avg. copy margin
vs. major exchanges
1.5x
BACKGROUND
BACKGROUND
Flipster is a crypto perpetuals trading platform serving 200+ countries
Flipster is a crypto perpetuals trading platform serving 200+ countries
Flipster specializes in perpetual trading with leveraged futures positions, strategically focused on South Korea, China, Taiwan, Russia, UAE, and Vietnam. Unlike professional-focused platforms, Flipster is positioned to make crypto trading accessible to a wider audience. But targeting a broader user base came with its own set of challenges.
Flipster specializes in perpetual trading with leveraged futures positions, strategically focused on South Korea, China, Taiwan, Russia, UAE, and Vietnam. Unlike professional-focused platforms, Flipster is positioned to make crypto trading accessible to a wider audience. But targeting a broader user base came with its own set of challenges.
PROBLEM
PROBLEM
KOLs had no reason to bring followers in, and new users hesitated to take the first step
KOLs had no reason to bring followers in, and new users hesitated to take the first step
Business Problem
Business Problem
No reason for KOLs to bring their community over
No reason for KOLs to bring their community over
Recommending Flipster offered nothing in return, making influencer-driven growth unpredictable and hard to scale.
Recommending Flipster offered nothing in return, making influencer-driven growth unpredictable and hard to scale.
User Problem
User Problem
Perpetual trading felt overwhelming to new users
Perpetual trading felt overwhelming to new users
With no idea where to even begin, over 1 in 3 never placed a single trade after KYC.
With no idea where to even begin, over 1 in 3 never placed a single trade after KYC.
* KOL (Key Opinion Leader): Crypto influencers who build their own communities around trade insights.
* KOL (Key Opinion Leader): Crypto influencers who build their own communities around trade insights.
OPPORTUNITY
OPPORTUNITY
Copy trading could connect both sides
Copy trading could connect both sides
For KOLs
For KOLs
Turn community into income
Turn community into income
KOLs who share trade insights can now earn directly from their following. The more followers copy and profit, the higher their profit share.
KOLs who share trade insights can now earn directly from their following. The more followers copy and profit, the higher their profit share.
For new users
For new users
No expertise needed. Just follow.
No expertise needed. Just follow.
No need to master perpetual trading first. Pick a trader worth following, and every position is automatically mirrored. No charts, no 24/7 monitoring required.
No need to master perpetual trading first. Pick a trader worth following, and every position is automatically mirrored. No charts, no 24/7 monitoring required.
HOW MIGHT WE
Help new users explore traders worth following with curiosity, and try copy trading with ease
CONSTRAINTS
Binance's approach couldn't work here
Couldn't build every advanced setting with limited resources
Turn simplicity into the strategy, essentials only.
Couldn't win on brand recognition
Give copy trading its own tab,
front and center
Couldn't offer hundreds of traders to choose from
Spotlight each one, making fewer choices feel like a feature.
USABILITY TEST
Global user research to challenge our assumptions and uncover blind spots
Before jumping into development, I ran usability tests with 6 users across South Korea, Taiwan, China, and Vietnam. The goal was to validate the core flow: discovering a trader, learning more about them, and deciding to start copying.
HOW MIGHT WE
Help new users explore traders worth following with curiosity, and try copy trading with ease
CONSTRAINTS
Binance's approach couldn't work here
Couldn't offer hundreds of traders
to choose from
Couldn't offer hundreds of traders to choose from
Spotlight each one,
making fewer choices feel like a feature.
Spotlight each one, making fewer choices feel like a feature.
Couldn't build every advanced setting
with limited resources
Couldn't build every advanced setting with limited resources
Turn simplicity into the strategy, essentials only.
Couldn't win on brand recognition
Couldn't win on brand recognition
Give copy trading its own tab,
front and center
Give copy trading its own tab, front and center
USABILITY TEST
Global user research to challenge our assumptions and uncover blind spots
Before jumping into development, I ran usability tests with 6 users across South Korea, Taiwan, China, and Vietnam. The goal was to validate the core flow: discovering a trader, learning more about them, and deciding to start copying.
DISCOVERY
Remove distractions so users could focus on discovering traders
Before
After
During testing, users were distracted by a permanent Copy activity entry point at the top. It fragmented their view before they could explore any trader. In response, I moved it out of the discovery flow, trimmed non-essential information, and brought trader profiles to the front so the first thing users see is who to follow.
PROFILE EXPLORATION
Prioritize what matters and make the rest easier to grasp
Before
After
During testing, users went straight to ROI. I reorganized the profile around the ROI trend as the entry point and grouped supporting metrics under clear labels to reduce overwhelm.
Copier earnings turned out to be more important to users than I initially expected. So I elevated it to its own tab, making it easier to see how other copiers were performing and how much the top earners were actually making.
START COPYING
Break the setup into steps users can take one at a time
Before
After
Other exchanges handle copy setup in a single screen. But for our users, mostly beginners to intermediate traders, that felt overwhelming.
I broke it into three focused steps: how much to copy, how to set the position copy mode, and stop loss settings. Each step also surfaces the trader's recommended defaults, so users always have a trusted starting point.
AFTER MVP LAUNCH
The MVP launched, went viral, and suddenly more KOLs wanted in than our one-by-one spotlight approach could scale.
FURTHER ITERATION
Rebuild discovery to scale with a growing trader pool
Before
After
Spotlighting every master trader individually wasn't scalable as the pool grew. At the same time, users wanted more ways to sort and evaluate traders, and stronger signals about who was actively trading. I reconsidered the discovery structure to scale with both.
Final Output
Most exchanges expect users to learn copy trading before they start. This was designed the other way around — give beginners and intermediate traders just enough to take the first step, with the right information available when they need it, not all at once.
Concluding Thoughts
The most challenging part was figuring out what it should look like without a playbook to follow. Other exchanges have years of iteration behind theirs. We were starting from zero, with different constraints and a different audience. Usability testing early became the way to move with confidence instead of assumption.
Global user research shifted the entire direction. Copy trading exists on most major exchanges, but most users have never actually used it. That insight pushed the approach toward reducing friction over adding features — and shaped almost every decision that followed.
Thanks for Watching!
FURTHER ITERATION
Rebuild discovery to scale with a growing trader pool
Before
After
Spotlighting every master trader individually wasn't scalable as the pool grew. At the same time, users wanted more ways to sort and evaluate traders, and stronger signals about who was actively trading. I reconsidered the discovery structure to scale with both.
AFTER MVP LAUNCH
The MVP launched, went viral, and suddenly more KOLs wanted in than our one-by-one spotlight approach could scale.
Final Output
Most exchanges expect users to learn copy trading before they start. This was designed the other way around — give beginners and intermediate traders just enough to take the first step, with the right information available when they need it, not all at once.
Concluding Thoughts
The most challenging part was figuring out what it should look like without a playbook to follow. Other exchanges have years of iteration behind theirs. We were starting from zero, with different constraints and a different audience. Usability testing early became the way to move with confidence instead of assumption.
Global user research shifted the entire direction. Copy trading exists on most major exchanges, but most users have never actually used it. That insight pushed the approach toward reducing friction over adding features — and shaped almost every decision that followed.
Thanks for Watching!
Concluding Thoughts
A key learning from this project was adapting our research methodology to overcome cultural barriers in Korea, where even people in their mid to late 20s tend to be relatively conservative about dating and stigmatize dating app users as those who should be filtered out. Through pilot interviews, I discovered how this stigma led participants to downplay their app usage and provide socially desirable responses. For the main study, I addressed this by conducting research under the guise of academic study - yielding more authentic feedback. However, the real breakthrough came through usability tests, where the 'think aloud' protocol finally enabled us to capture unfiltered user perspectives.
The academic foundation from my concurrent master's studies greatly helped establish these research protocols and build organizational buy-in for user-centered approaches, ultimately becoming the catalyst for establishing the organization's first sustainable foundation for UX research. Particularly, implementing 'VoC Read Aloud Sessions' to share raw user feedback with team members transformed initial skepticism into empathy and naturally led to problem-solving ideas.
Thanks for Watching!
Final Output
Profile pictures were enlarged for better visibility of critical user information. The redesign prioritized system recommendations and reduced uncertainty, ensuring intuitive navigation through clear hierarchy from day one.
Visual previews of potential voice chat interactions were added to reduce user anxiety. The preview content was sped up for intuitive comprehension.
DISCOVERY
Remove distractions so users could focus on discovering traders
Before
After
During testing, users were distracted by a permanent Copy activity entry point at the top. It fragmented their view before they could explore any trader. In response, I moved it out of the discovery flow, trimmed non-essential information, and brought trader profiles to the front so the first thing users see is who to follow.
PROFILE EXPLORATION
Prioritize what matters and make the rest easier to grasp
Before
After
During testing, users went straight to ROI. I reorganized the profile around the ROI trend as the entry point and grouped supporting metrics under clear labels to reduce overwhelm.
Copier earnings turned out to be more important to users than I initially expected. So I elevated it to its own tab, making it easier to see how other copiers were performing and how much the top earners were actually making.
START COPYING
Break the setup into steps users can take one at a time
Before
After
Other exchanges handle copy setup in a single screen. But for our users, mostly beginners to intermediate traders, that felt overwhelming.
I broke it into three focused steps: how much to copy, how to set the position copy mode, and stop loss settings. Each step also surfaces the trader's recommended defaults, so users always have a trusted starting point.