Review
Updated
OKX is an innovative cryptocurrency exchange that makes it easy to buy, sell, or trade cryptocurrencies but is currently not available to U.S. residents. Instead, U.S. residents can access its sister exchange, OKCoin, but this exchange platform doesn't offer as many coins or features.
OKX offers advanced financial services as well as excellent primers for anyone new to crypto. It boasts an impressive list of services that include flexible borrowing and ways to earn interest on staked tokens. OKX provides simple and complex trading tools and, if you're interested, an on-ramp into proof-of-work crypto mining and DeFi liquidity mining. Read our full OKX review to learn more about its many offerings.
Ratings Methodology
Bottom Line
OKX is not currently available in the U.S., but its sister platform, OKCoin, is. OKX has a complex fee structure and is a complicated platform best for experienced traders. It does offer a unique rewards structure.
Fees:
Fees vary by tier
Account Minimum:
$0
Full OKX review
This cryptocurrency exchange is a good fit for: Non-U.S. residents who are crypto-curious, as well as experienced day traders and professional brokers.
Pros
- Allows a wide array of fiat currencies to open an account
- Educational resources
- Broad suite of offerings
- High Staking APY's
- Hundreds of trading pairs
- Buy/Sell dashboard that's easy to use
- Tech support that responds quickly via online chat
Cons
- Not available to residents in several countries, including the U.S.
- Very complex, multi-tiered fee structure
Top perks
Educational resources spanning from novice to professional
Under the "Learn" section of OKX's website, you can access dozens of beginner tutorials and videos to help you get started. OKX also provides timely articles, industry analysis, and the opportunity to become an OKX broker.
Access to new DeFi projects via liquidity mining
Decentralized finance, or DeFi, is one of the fastest growing areas of smart contracts and blockchains. A key driver of this growth is liquidity mining. This is where users who provide liquidity to a decentralized protocol can passively earn its tokens in exchange. The return from liquidity mining can be much higher than that of staking.
OKX's Jumpstart Mining initiative allows you to farm DeFi tokens while supporting your chosen projects by staking OKB, OKX's ecosystem token.
Earn fractional amounts of Bitcoin every day
OKX also has a unique loyalty program that rewards regular use of its mobile app. Every day, five new "learning missions" are posted to the app, which require watching a video or reading an article. The completion of each task rewards the user with 50 Satoshis; each Satoshi is equal to roughly 100 millionth of a full Bitcoin. When the user earns 10,000 Satoshis, the rewards can be converted into an equal amount of Bitcoin, which can be held, staked, or traded on OKX.
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What could be improved
Limited features for U.S. investors
OKX is inaccessible to U.S. investors, but residents can easily access OKX's sister exchange, OKCoin.
OKCoin is a simpler exchange platform that offers buying and selling of cryptocurrencies, trading, staking, and access to DeFi projects and initial coin offerings (ICOs). However, it doesn't offer the complete range of services that OKX does. This is unfortunate, as OKX is one of few exchanges that offer such a wide selection of tokens and crypto mining options.
"Know your customer" (KYC) security adds an extra step to deposits
Online safety, privacy, and security are critical features of any cryptocurrency exchange. If you're not a resident of a country that the exchange supports, you can't make a direct crypto buy with a credit card or bank account. You can transfer cryptocurrencies from another exchange or wallet; it just adds another step.
The fee structure is overly complex
Based on the exchange's posted fee schedule, it's difficult to tell if the charges are high or low. It would be nice to have a table comparing its fees to those of similar exchanges.
Alternatives to consider
If you want a U.S. based full-service crypto exchange: Headquartered in the U.S., Gemini is easy to use and offers a variety of tokens, trading features, staking, and rewards.
If you're looking for an easy-to-understand fee schedule: Coinbase has much clearer and simpler fees than OKX, making it worthy of consideration.
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| Rating |
Rating image, 4.50 out of 5 stars.
4.50/5
Our ratings are based on a 5 star scale.
5 stars equals Best.
4 stars equals Excellent.
3 stars equals Good.
2 stars equals Fair.
1 star equals Poor.
We want your money to work harder for you. Which is why our ratings are biased toward offers that deliver versatility while cutting out-of-pocket costs.
= Best
= Excellent
= Good
= Fair = Poor |
Rating image, 4.50 out of 5 stars.
4.50/5
Our ratings are based on a 5 star scale.
5 stars equals Best.
4 stars equals Excellent.
3 stars equals Good.
2 stars equals Fair.
1 star equals Poor.
We want your money to work harder for you. Which is why our ratings are biased toward offers that deliver versatility while cutting out-of-pocket costs.
= Best
= Excellent
= Good
= Fair = Poor |
| Commissions |
$0.99-$2.99 orders < $200, 1.49% for orders at least $200 (default), 0% - 0.40% (Gemini ActiveTrader)
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Variable fees (Coinbase), 0%-0.80% (Coinbase Advanced Trade), $29.99 monthly (Coinbase One)
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| Next Steps |
How OKX works
OKX is an innovative cryptocurrency exchange with advanced financial services built on blockchain technology to provide trading, investment, and learning resources.
It's one of the largest crypto exchanges in the world based on trading volume. Serving millions of users in more than 100 countries, it offers access to hundreds of tokens and trading pairs. In addition to futures trading, it provides a range of services. This includes:
- Spot trading
- Margin trading
- Options
- Perpetual swaps
- Decentralized finance (DeFi)
- Lending
- Crypto mining services
OKX trading
From the home page, you can select "Basic Trading," which allows for spot and simple option trading.
You can also select "Margin Trading." This will allow you to use leverage to try to amplify returns when trading in futures, advanced options, and perpetual swaps. The advanced service allows professional traders to engage in sophisticated transactions involving multi-currencies to maximize profits.
To use the advanced functions, you have to apply and be approved. So beginners don't have to worry about making a costly mistake. There's also a "demo trading" feature that allows novices to practice trading with no risk.
Staking your crypto on OKX
OKX provides interest-bearing staking accounts for more than 100 different tokens and projects. Each has its own annual percentage yield (APY) based on whether you choose a fixed or flexible holding period. It's worth noting that some of the coins have minimum staking requirements, such as Ethereum, which won't allow you to stake less than 0.02 ETH.
OKX Wallet
The exchange platform has a native wallet feature that's accessible by downloading the wallet app separately. The wallet supports 36 digital assets and multiple vaults and integrates seamlessly with the main OKX trading app.
Crypto mining pools
OKX also lets users try their hand at crypto mining by joining a miner pool.
A miner pool connects individual miners from around the world and pools their hash rate (a series of mathematical steps) together. This way, they're all mining at a higher level, giving them meaningful odds of solving a proof-of-work block. Pooling is necessary because the odds of an individual miner solving a block on their own are slim to none.
On OKX, once a block has been solved, the rewards will be split up among mining pool members according to how much computing power each contributed. OKX offers 11 proof-of-work mining pools to choose from, including Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Litecoin, along with tutorials on how to join each.
Flexible lending options
OKX also allows different forms of decentralized financing spanning 29 digital assets. It offers traditional DeFi options using Aave, dYdX, Compound, DDEX, and Maker. These have varying interest rates determined by the platform and the token type you'd like to borrow. OKX also enables peer-to-peer lending services with flexible terms.
Fees overview
OKX's complicated fee schedule is divided into two tiers, with multiple levels within each tier. Below are the tiers only for spot trading, to provide an example of the fee scheduling complexity.
For regular users, your fees are based on the number of OKB you hold. OKB is the native cryptocurrency of the OKX exchange. The more OKB you hold within the OKX ecosystem, the lower your fees. Generally speaking, the "maker fee" is paid by the person who initiates the order to buy or sell, while the other party that completes the complementary transaction pays the "taker fee."
Regular users
| Tier | Total OKB holding | 30-day trading volume (USD) | Maker fee | Taker fee | 24h withdrawal limit (BTC) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Level 1 | < 500 | < $5 million | 0.080% | 0.100% | 500 |
| Level 2 | ≥ 500 | < $5 million | 0.075% | 0.095% | 500 |
| Level 3 | ≥ 1,000 | < $5 million | 0.070% | 0.090% | 500 |
| Level 4 | ≥ 1,500 | < $5 million | 0.065% | 0.085% | 500 |
| Level 5 | ≥ 2,000 | < $5 million | 0.060% | 0.080% | 500 |
Source: okx.com
For VIP users, their fees are determined by different criteria, focusing instead on their trading volume over the last 30 days.
VIP users
| Tier | 30-day trading volume (USD) | Maker fee | Taker fee | 24h withdrawal limit (BTC) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| VIP 1 | ≥ $5 million | 0.060% | 0.080% | 600 |
| VIP 2 | ≥ $10 million | 0.040% | 0.075% | 800 |
| VIP 3 | ≥ $50 million | 0.020% | 0.070% | 1,000 |
| VIP 4 | ≥ $100 million | 0.000% | 0.060% | 1,200 |
| VIP 5 | ≥ $200 million | -0.002% | 0.050% | 1,500 |
| VIP 6 | ≥ $500 million | -0.005% | 0.040% | 1,800 |
| VIP 7 | ≥ $1 billion | -0.010% | 0.030% | 2,000 |
Source: okx.com
It's worth noting that both fee tables above are needlessly different for futures, perpetual swaps, and options transactions.
Cryptocurrency selection
OKX supports hundreds of tokens and coin pairs on its trading site to buy, sell, or trade using leverage or your own on-chain portfolio.
For the most popular cryptocurrencies, it has an "instant" buy/sell box without any charts, graphs, or order books. It's simple and easy to use for the following digital assets:
- Bitcoin (BTC)
- Ethereum (ETH)
- Tether (USDT)
- Litecoin (LTC)
- Ripple (XRP)
- Bitcoin Cash (BCH)
- Dogecoin (DOGE)
- Cardano (ADA)
- Polkadot (DOT)
- Polygon (MATIC)
Is your cryptocurrency safe with OKX?
OKX's hot wallet system uses multiple levels of protection to ensure the security of its users' private keys, including:
- Online and semi-offline risk-management systems
- Semi-offline multisignature services
- Big data risk-reduction systems
All user-asset deposits and withdrawals require layered risk-management mechanisms before being posted to the blockchain for confirmation.
According to OKX, its semi-offline servers cannot be compromised -- even if physically attacked. That's because a user's private key is stored in the server's temporary memory file, not a permanent hard drive. This makes it virtually impossible for hackers to gain access.
OKX does not use an ordinary Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP), which is the typical method that allows digital computers to communicate over long distances. Instead, this communication is conducted via a special network communication protocol that is a proprietary, partially offline service that prevents an online attack.
Lastly, there are diversified emergency plans for backup private-key activation in different locations.
RELATED: Best Day Trading Platforms
OKX is right for you if:
- You don't live in the U.S.
- You're a rookie or veteran of cryptocurrency trading and investing
- You're looking for a robust suite of crypto-based financial and trading services
- You're curious about exploring crypto or liquidity mining as passive revenue streams
- You like the idea of a crypto exchange with a fully integrated wallet and native coin
Our Cryptocurrency Expert
Tor Constantino is a former journalist and consultant and a current corporate communications executive and business writer. Since 2017, he has also written about cryptocurrencies, blockchain, and crypto's potential to revolutionize finance. His writing has appeared in outlets including Entrepreneur, Forbes, Fortune, CEOWorld, and Yahoo!.
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Tor Constantino has positions in Bitcoin and Ethereum. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Aave, Best Buy, Bitcoin, Cardano, Ethereum, Polygon, and Target. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.