Been through our 50+ Cryptocurrency Trading Exchanges list? Then you probably know that Okx differs from the other exchanges in quite a few ways. Either way, this piece is completely and solely dedicated to Okx review.
Now if you’re here, you surely are either looking for a new trading exchange, or just wish to know how good of an exchange Okx is specifically.
In either case, by the end of this Okx review the following questions would be answered:
Alike all our other trading exchange reviews, we haven’t been paid/compensated by Okx in anyway for this review. Hence you can expect it to be as honest, unbiased and transparent as possible.
Okx Exchange Quick Overview
We know everyone’s short on time. You may not have the time, patience or just the mood to go through this entire Okx review. We definitely hope and wish you do, but in case you don’t, here’s a bite-sized overview of the entire platform
- Primary URL: https://www.okx.com/
- KYC: Mandatory
- Centralized: Yes
- Supported trading pairs: 100+
- Payment Methods: Cryptocurrencies only.
- Fee: 0.1%.
- Security: 2FA/IP-approval/Cold-Storage.
- Leverage trading: Yes (5x).
Let’s get into the finer details of the company then?
What is Okx KYC Policy/Requirement?
We include this at the very beginning in all our articles because we generally prioritise anonymous/ non-KYC exchanges. Unfortunately, Okx isn’t one of them alike most other Centralized exchanges.
Okx does let users create accounts, deposit and even trade funds without KYC verifications. However, withdrawing funds requires KYC to be completed.
The platform has 3 KYC verification levels. KYC-1 / 2 and 3.
KYC-1 is the easiest. It requires absolutely no documents to be “uploaded”. Simply entering the details (and document number) is enough. However note that which documents are allowed or required for your verification would depend on your country of residence.
It actually takes less than a minute to be completed (and verified). I completed my verification for the purposes of this Okx review, and here’s the instantaneous success-message I received
Anyway, once the level-1 verification is complete, users are allowed to Withdraw funds.
KYC-2 requires document uploads proving a users’ Identity and/or Address. This however is pretty easy and fast as well.
The platform has a verification process which can use your webcam/laptop camera and instantly let you take and upload photos of your identity-documeents without leaving the website!
Or, a QR Code is provided using which a user’s Phone-camera is linked with the verification process. This can then be used to scan documents in real-time and upload automatically to the platform.
There’s a list of unsupported documents for the KYC-2 verifications, which includes:
- Birth Certificates.
- Credit cards.
- Company/Employment Cards.
- Student ID*
- Visa*.
*Student ID for students of Poland, and VISA for U.S and China are accepted.
KYC-2 Verification may take upto 3 business days to be completed.
While KYC-2 unlocks most features of the platform, there’s the final KYC-3 verification. This is video-verification, and requires verification over Skype!
In a nutshell, Okx isn’t an anonymous Cryptocurrency trading exchange. Even though the basic KYC requirements are minimum, they’re still privacy-breaching.
Is Okx Safe and Trustworthy?
The platform is pretty established, so that counts. It also lists its physical address publicly minimising the chances of it suddenly running-away with user-funds someday.
Apart from that, the company does have a cold-storage to store user funds. It also offers pretty generous rewards (upto 10ETH) under its Bug-bounty program. These do hint at the platform’s seriousness towards security.
Apart from that, It offers the following security to users for their account-security:
- 2-FA
- Fund Password.
- Anti Phishing Code.
- IP-confirmations.
2-FA is 2-factor authentication and can be enabled both via a cell phone number, as well as Authy, Google Authenticator. Once enabled, major security changes and OTPs need to be verified via 2-FA before they can be implemented.
The Anti-Phishing code is a secret (or personal) phrase which can be specified by users. This is included in all the e-mails sent by the company to users. It prevents fraud and spam e-mails others may send posing as Okx representatives.
There also is the additional feature of IP-confirmations. This lets users either confirm or remove active login sessions from their accounts.
All in all, between the cold-storage and account-sec features, the platform does seem pretty well protected.
How can you Deposit and Withdraw on Okx?
Remember us mentioning how Okx was different than the other Trading exchanges we normally review?
Well that’s because Okx is a “Crypto-only” platform. This means no fiat deposit/withdrawals are supported.
This also means users can’t buy Cryptocurrencies on the platform, if they don’t already own any.
All the major Cryptocurrencies available on the platform can be deposited directly.
Although note, deposited funds go to the “Funding account” by default. They then need to be transferred to the “Spot/Margin” account to be traded.
The same holds true for Withdrawals, funds need to be moved from the “Spot/Margin” accounts into the “Funding” accounts to be withdrawn.
What are the Fee and Limits on Okx?
Because it’s a Crypto-only platform, the fee and limits are much simpler the ones mentioned in our Bitfinex Review, or Binance Review.
The platform makes use of the maker-taker fee-model for its trades. The fee start at 0.1% for makers and 0.15% for takers. It goes down to 0.06% for the Maker and 0.09% for the taker.
Although this fee also depends on the “type” of trade. Fee for “Futures trading” and “Perpetual Swap Trading” differ.
Apart from that, depositing Cryptocurrencies on the platform is absolutely free. Withdrawing is charged, and the fee depends on each individual currency being withdrawn.
As for the limits, there are no maximum-deposit limits. However minimum deposit limits do exist, and are currency-specific. BTC has a minimum deposit requirement of 0.00005 BTC.
There are KYC-based limits as well. KYC-1 users can withdraw upto 100 BTC, KYC level 2 and 3 can withdraw 300 BTC each.
Is Okx Available in Your Country?
Okx isn’t a global platform. It too has restrictions in some countries just as we’ve seen in our Kraken Review, and with most other trading exchanges as well.
Okx isn’t available in Sudan, North Korea, Hong Kong, Cuba, Iran, Crimea, Malaysia, Syria, USA (including U.S territories), Bangladesh, Bolivia, Kyrgyzstan and Ecuador.
What are the Available Trading Pairs on Okx?
The platform is extremely currency-rich. It has to be considering how it doesn’t support fiats to begin with.
There’s no official count of the exact number of available trading pairs. However from a glance it can be safely assumed to be 100+ in the least.
Note that the platform does support “Margin Trading”. It allows upto 5x Margin trading, but only on some trading pairs and not all.
What are the Available Order-Types on Okx?
Okx is arguably the best trading exchange if we talk exclusively in context of “order-types”.
It offers as many as 7 order-types, while most other exchanges offer just 2 or 3. The ones available on Okx are:
- Limit Order: Buy/Sell at a specific price.
- Market Order: Buy/sell instantly at the current price.
- Trigger order: Set a “Trigger price” which triggers the order-price.
- Trail Order: Combination of “trigger order” and custom callback rates. Buy/sell at market-price.
- Iceberg order: Smaller order-chunks for a large order.
- Advanced Limit Order: Set custom “Post only”, “Fill or kill” or “immediate or cancel” parameters.
- And finally the TWAP orders.
Wrapping up Okx Review
So this is me signing off this Okx review folks. In my personal opinion, the platform is pretty acceptable. Considering how no document-uploads are required for level-1 verifications.
Although its limited availability of “crypto-only” deposit/withdrawal method may be a downer for some.
The fee and limits are parallel with the other companies as well. But let me add, the support team is literally the best I’ve ever encountered. They’re available 24X 7 over live-chat, are fast, responsive and really cordial.
Moreover, it has a dedicated “English-speaking” support team which can be reached via phone. And then obviously slower methods such as Social Media and E-mails too are available.
I’d say it totally deserves a chance if you’re looking for a new platform to trade on. Do you think the same? Do let us know what you think of this Okx review in the comments.