OKEx Review
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Trading Platform
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Ease of Use
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Fees
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Trading Tools
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Platforms Offered
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Customer Service
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Platform & Account Security
Summary
Looking for a good cryptocurrency exchange? If so, you may have come across OKEx. OKEx is a cryptocurrency exchange that offers over 100 different cryptocurrencies. Their tools also include an options market, a perpetual swap market, a mining pool, and more. Is this the right cryptocurrency exchange for your needs? Read our review of OKEx and find out.
Pros
Wide range of services that will suit any type of investor or individual looking to make profits from cryptocurrency; Pro-Blockchain services including DEX, Cloud, and more, pushing the envelope of innovation within the industry.
Cons
The market windows feel unintuitive, as there is little difference in visual aspects comparing the various different markets (they all look vaguely the same), which could be confusing if the user isn’t paying attention.
About OKEx
With so many cryptocurrency exchanges competing for customers in today’s space, the bar has been set high with regards to the features and services offered by an exchange.
As an exchange that regularly exceeds volumes of $1.8 billion over 24 hour periods, OKEx offers a wide range of services to cater to every type of crypto customer.
What does this exchange have to offer, and what makes them stand out amongst the other exchanges in the industry, such as BW.com and bitFlyer? Is OKEx a legitimate and trustworthy exchange? Let’s find out in this review of OKEx.
A Brief History Of OKEx
The OKEx crypto exchange was founded in China in 2017, by Star Xu. Attracted to Malta’s lax regulation regarding cryptocurrencies, OKEx reestablished themselves with a headquarters in Malta, in 2018. This was largely in part due to the fact that China has had very strict laws surrounding cryptocurrencies, in some cases forcing exchanges to close down.
The exchange belongs to the parent company, OK Group, which specializes in blockchain innovations. The OK Group manages a number of blockchain companies, many of which offer cryptocurrency-related services to customers. The group also invests in companies within the industry to help drive creative breakthroughs.
OKEx Product Offerings
OKEx has over one hundred different cryptocurrencies, including Bitcoin, Litecoin, and Ethereum, available to trade against several trading pairs available on OKEx’s trading platform including:
- USDT
- USDC
- USDK
- BTC
- ETH
- OKB
- DAI.
OKEx Platforms And Tools
For a crypto exchange, OKEx has managed to pack their exchange full of services aimed at meeting the needs of every type of trader.
OKEx Spot Market
For traditional trading, OKEx has a spot market. The spot market features a simple design, with a chart, a searchable trading pair database, a live order book, order kiosk, as well as a log of the customer’s open orders and order history. From here, traders can buy and sell the cryptos of their choice in real-time.
OKEx Margin Trading
Traders looking to increase their profits can leverage their trades with OKEx’s margin trading. OKEx allows up to 10x leverage for some trading pairs, with others offered at 2x, 3x, and 5x. This essentially allows the user to borrow an amount of assets from the exchange to be able to open larger positions on the market. While this can increase risks slightly (especially without using Stop-Loss orders), users can maximize their profits by accessing levels of capital they did not previously have access to.
Futures
Another feature of OKEx’s is their Futures crypto derivatives market. Traders can open long or short contracts based on the trend of the market. Users can also leverage their contracts up to 100x, giving users the possibility of maximum potential profits.
OKEx Options
Users can also trade on OKEx’s Options market, allowing traders to maximize their profits with different trading strategies. Users can place puts and calls to either buy or sell an asset at a given time. Currently, only BTC/USD, ETH/USD, and EOS/USD are available in the Options market.
Perpetual Swap
A Perpetual Swap market is also featured on OKEx. This is very similar to Bitmex’s Perpetual Contracts, in that traders can trade futures contracts, but the contracts themselves have no settlement or expiry date. These could be thought of as a sort of bet on what the future price will be. Similar to the other markets featured on OKEx, the Perpetual Swap market also includes leverage of up to 100x depending on the asset.
Broker
OKEx also has a desktop broker, allowing users to effortlessly buy crypto using cash or a credit card. The price one pays for their desired crypto will be at a slight premium, as this method allows users to bypass trading the live markets, making this ideal for the casual user or HODLer. Users can buy Bitcoin, Litecoin, Ethereum, Ripple, USDT, and OKB (OKEx’s exchange token). Payment transactions will be aided with the help of one of OKEx’s partners. These partners include: Vanpool, Indacoin, Koinal, and XanPool.
OKEx Earn Program
Users are also able to grow their account size through OKEx’s Earn program. By depositing various cryptocurrencies into a lock-up period on OKEx, users can earn compounding interest on their holdings depending on the time length of the lock-up term (30 days, 60 days, 90 days). Over 30 tokens are supported with this feature, including Bitcoin, Hedera Hashgraph, Algorand, Litecoin, NEO, Ethereum, and more.
Included with the Earn program of OKEx is their Savings Account. This allows users to receive compounding interest (at a far less rate than a lock-up term) by using the savings account to store their crypto. Customers are free to exchange tokens to and from the account at any time. This is a great feature for the user that wants to earn compounding interest, but don’t want to have to commit to a term deposit.
Mining Pool
For users looking to earn crypto through other avenues, OXEx has a Mining Pool. This allows users to connect to their mining pool of choice, exchanging processing power for a share in the pool’s rewards. There are many PoW algorithms to choose from, including SHA256 (BTC, BCH, BSV); Scrypt (LTC); Ethash (ETH, ETC); X11 (Dash); RandomX (XMR); and more.
Multi-Currency Wallet Mobile Wallet
Another feature of the OKEx exchange is their Multi-Currency Wallet Mobile Wallet. Users will be able to store many of the mainstream tokens (including Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin) as well as many ERC-20 tokens. From the wallet, users will be able to manage multiple wallets from one single account. This wallet application is available for Android and iOS devices.
Mobile Trading Application
Another application offered by OKEx is their mobile trading application. This program allows users to trade anywhere, at any time, by offering the full capacities of the OKEx platform into a convenient, on-the-go format. The application is available for iOS, Android, Windows, and MacOS devices.
Affiliate Program
To incentivize adoption amongst users, OKEx has an Affiliate Program that rewards users (and their newly referred friends) with $10 when the new customer buys $100 or more worth of cryptocurrency within 180 days of joining the platform. Users may be entitled to larger commissions if 10 new users are referred to the platform.
OKB Utility Token
Like many exchanges in the industry, OKEx offers their own utility token, called OKB. With the OKB token, customers can enjoy fee discounts and access to token sales. The token is deflationary in nature as the exchange regularly participates in token burns and buy backs, ultimately decreasing the supply (with the aim of increasing the value).
OKChain
One of the more interesting features is the OKChain, an open-sourced blockchain designed to increase blockchain adoption amongst large commercial applications. With the OKChain, users can launch their own dAPPs (Decentralized Applications), allowing users to take advantage of blockchain technology without having to build a blockchain on the back end.
OKEx DEX
To get an idea of how a decentralized spot exchange might work on OKEx’s OKChain, the company has built their own exchange on the blockchain, with the exchange live only on a TestNet (as of this writing). As one of the first decentralized spot markets in the industry, the OKEx DEX (Decentralized Exchange) is a piece of technology to keep an eye on in the future.
OKEx Cloud
In an effort to empower the crypto entrepreneur, OKEx has an application available, via OKEx Cloud, to build an exchange using (and including) the framework and features of the OKEx platform. Exchanges will be able to share in OKEx’s market liquidity and depth, design and security system, customer support, C2C trading, development across multiple platforms, and support flexible, autonomic token listing.
OKEx Fees
The fee schedule on OKEx is formatted around a Maker/Taker fee model, with market makers paying less in fees than market takers. Each tier of fees is based on the volume traded over a 30-day period. Accounts with VIP levels will pay a lower fee overall.
Margin trading incurs its own unique fees dependent on the cryptocurrency being traded. Margin fees can be researched here: Margin Fees.
OKEx Customer Support And Resources
The OKEx platform has a number of customer support resources available. For customers needing general help, a Support Center is accessible, featuring an FAQ of answers to commonly asked questions, API documentation, and a beginner’s guide to using OKEx.
An active Community is also available for customers needing support. This can be a great way to receive help as a forum connects users across the platform, often working together for the benefit of all.
If users cannot find a solution on the Support Center, they are free to open a support ticket with a request to the support team. Users are also able to open a Live Chat with a customer service representative.
OKEx is active on Twitter, Weibo, Telegram, WeChat, Reddit, BiYong, Facebook, Medium, as well as on their own Press Room.
Should a customer need assistance in contacting law enforcement regarding their account, OKEx has given a Law Enforcement Request Guide to facilitate the process of working with Law Enforcement regarding any issue. OKEx has given clear outlines of information that could help with the processing of a request.
Is OKEx Trustworthy?
With regards to the security of their platform, OKEx enacts upon a strict philosophy that dictates the manner in which the platform, and the user’s account, remains secure. OKEx has a fully transparent process of how they transfer funds to cold storage. The highlights of OKEx’s security process can be seen as follows:
The fact that OKEx has gone to such great lengths to make their security known is highly applaudable, as the information given on OKEx’s site far exceeds the security information found on other exchanges.
Opening An Account On OKEx
To open an account on OKEx, users can register with either a valid email address, or with a mobile phone number, and a strong password.
Once the user has entered their credentials, OKEx will send a unique 6-digit code to the address provided, which will be needed to be entered into OKEx’s corresponding terminal to verify the account.
From here, users are free to deposit crypto, or link their proper payment channels to be able to buy crypto on the platform.
It should be noted that OKEx is a KYC exchange, and that various identifying documents and information will be needed in order to gain greater access to OKEx’s services.
Conclusions For OKEx
OKEx has literally created itself into a mega-giant exchange, offering a vast array of different services, allowing customers to earn profit in numerous different ways. As a whole, this exchange feels very similar to platforms such as Binance and KuCoin. For the eligible user, this platform might be ideal for any use case. One thing to remember, though, is that sometimes, companies can become too big for their own good. OKEx will be one exchange to watch in the coming years, as they have set a standard for themselves that will take integrity to maintain.
