OKX Review (2022)

OKX Overview

Introduction

OKX is a Seychelles-based cryptocurrency exchange that has been around since 2017.
As of 2022, OKX is the world’s second-largest crypto derivative exchange. It boasts over 20 million users in over 100 countries and is available in 15 languages. The languages on offer are regularly updated to make the exchange available to a broader audience.

Even though OKX is looking to expand, they don’t accept customers from some locations such as Cuba, Iran, Hong Kong, North Korea, the USA, and several others. If you want to read more, visit their regulations support page.

Recently, OKX signed a multi-year sponsorship deal with Manchester City Football Club and F1 team Mclaren, two massive marketing steps for the exchange.

Is OKX Safe?

When it comes to your cryptocurrency, you want to ensure it’s in safe hands. OKX is a secure service that, to our knowledge, hasn’t been hacked or had any security-related issues.

To help keep your account secure, OKX offers several advanced security features. During the set-up process, we were pleased to see the exchange uses 2FA during the set-up and every time we open the app. 2FA remains the best way to keep your exchange account safe, so set it up if you haven’t.

In addition, you can opt to use Google Authentication as an additional layer of security. You also have the ability to use anti-phishing codes, so you’ll know that every email you receive from OKX is legitimate. Email phishing scams are becoming more common in the cryptocurrency space, so we were happy to see the inclusion of the anti-phishing codes.

In terms of exchange security, over 95% of OKX assets are stored in cold wallets. Everything that’s online is vulnerable to attack; keeping your assets offline dramatically reduces the risk. Each cold wallet is backed up multiple times to protect any stored assets from unexpected events.

Overall we are satisfied with OKX when it comes to security, both on the user and exchange levels.

Getting Started

Which cryptos can you buy on OKX?

OKX supports a considerable amount of cryptocurrencies on their exchange. You can buy, sell, and trade over 300 tokens and coins, making it a decent offering. Binance and Kucoin have more coins listed, but unless you are looking for a very specific coin that OKX doesn’t have, you’ll be satisfied with their offering.

OKX supports more than 30 fiat currencies such as USD, EUR, GBP, KRW, RUB, USH, JPY, CAD, NZD, AUD, MXN, SGD… and more. In addition to just spot trading, you can buy futures, perpetuals, options and trade with margin. More on that later, but if you are looking for those advanced features – they’re there.

Sign-up / Verification Process

Signing up to OKX was one of the easiest and most seamless processes we’ve come across. Each step was clearly explained, and the entire process took no longer than 10 minutes to complete.

To set up an account, you must go through several verification procedures, which are standard in today’s crypto world. First, you need to enter your email or mobile number; this is required for the confirmation code to access the OKX app. Once you enter the code, you’ll have access to the OKX platform.

The next verification stage is required to add a payment method, e.g. VISA.

Another code is sent to your email address, followed by an SMS message with another code to ensure it is you. Enter both codes, and you’ll be prompted to enter your information, such as full name and address.

Next, you’ll need proof of identity such as your passport, driver’s licence, or government-issued identity card.
It took around 4 minutes for OKX to verify our identity, which is impressive and quicker than most.

Although, when it came to purchasing crypto, we had to repeat these steps again with BANXA (the third-party company OKX uses to handle fiat transactions). We also had to send a selfie while holding our passport to prove we were real and not a bot.

While these stages can be annoying, we were fully verified by OKX in 10 minutes, and they sent a notification to tell us we were verified. They even had a nice status screen to show what stage of the process our transaction/set-up was in.

While we are not fans of third-party services to buy crypto, we had no issues with using BANXA; it was quick and easy and is a viable option if you do decide to buy your first crypto on OKX despite the fact that it’s a trader’s exchange.

Funding Methods

OKX doesn’t support direct fiat deposits or withdrawals. To get around this, they use third-party companies like BANXA. If you’ve been looking for an exchange that can hold fiat for you, OKX isn’t the right choice for you.

This is why we think beginners might dislike OKX, as even though depositing funds isn’t overly complicated, it can add some confusion to the setup process.

The OKX exchange offers several other ways for you to fund your account. One of the easiest and most popular ways is to use Visa payments directly linked to your bank card.

OKX claim these payments will be in your account within 2-10 minutes. This claim proved true when we tested this method; the assets we purchased were in our OKX account in under a few minutes. The whole process was a straightforward way to buy crypto but could be improved upon by letting you use fiat directly in the OKX app.

Other payment options vary depending on what type of fiat you want to purchase crypto with.

Their express buy button on the OKX mobile app is the quickest and easiest method to purchase new crypto assets. The payment options available are VISA, MasterCard, Bank Transfer, ApplePay, and SEPA.

The web browser OKX interface has an easy-to-access “express” buy button. It’s super-easy to purchase crypto assets using your cards and other methods.

If you’re buying crypto using GBP or USD, you will have most of the options mentioned above available to you. However, if you’re using some other currency, such as AED, you will only have VISA and MasterCard payments available for the express buy feature.

We noticed other major currencies like EUR and CAD had the same options available as the USD, but they included other options as well, including iDEAL.

OKX supports most currencies such as USD, GBP, CAD, AUD, EUR, AED, and many others, far too many to mention in this review. According to OKX, they support over 30 currencies and have over 17 payment methods available (depending on your region and currency).

Withdrawal Methods

When it comes to withdrawing your cryptocurrency from your OKX account, we found you couldn’t withdraw directly into your fiat account, which isn’t brilliant, to say the least.

To withdraw your money, you’d need to send your crypto to another exchange or wallet and then withdraw it to your bank account or use OKX’s peer-to-peer (P2P) trading platform.

The P2P platform allows you to trade your crypto with other users in exchange for fiat. However, this method is long-winded and leaves you waiting for someone to buy your crypto from you.

We’ve found this method quite dated, and it’s far from ideal not to be able to withdraw your funds directly to your fiat bank account. Other services like Coinbase allow you to withdraw all of your funds to your bank account, and it would be nice to see OKX follow in their footsteps.

If you’re a beginner, we think it is likely that you’ll find this process complicated. It seems strange that OKX hasn’t introduced fiat withdrawals as many other exchanges now have. However, if you don’t intend on cashing out in fiat anytime soon, don’t let the lack of direct fiat withdrawals stop you. It’s all about finding an exchange that does what you want to do.

Fees

The trading fees you pay on OKX are based on the amount of assets you have in your OKX account. There are two main groups:

Regular users

Regular users start at the lowest tier rank (Level 1), with a maker-taker fee of 0.08%-0.1%, which is fantastic. 0.1% is the gold standard for crypto trading fees, so we’re happy to see OKX is on the right track.

For example, if you were to buy $10,000 worth of Bitcoin (BTC), you would only pay a $10 fee, which is hardly going to break the bank. As is the case with many crypto exchanges, the more you trade, the less you pay. OKX even offers negative fees (aka. they pay you for the trade), but negative fees start at a volume of $200 million a month – so don’t count on it.

The withdrawal limit stays at 500 BTC per day for regular users regardless of trading volume, which should be more than enough for most people.

VIP Users

VIP users must have over $100,000 in assets in their OKX account or a 30-day trading volume of $10,000,000. If you meet these criteria, you’ll have a significantly reduced fee and a larger daily withdrawal limit.

Funding Fees

You should also consider the fees for using third-party apps to deposit funds into your account. BANXA have several fees ranging from free to $15. The table below shows what their current fees are:

Depending on your location BANXA might not be available, and another third-party service will process your deposit, such as Simplex, whose fees range from 3.5-5% per transaction.

These fees add up, which is why OKX is not well suited to people looking to buy crypto here and there. OKX is, without a doubt, a trader’s exchange first, retail exchange second.

Volume & Liquidity

According to Coinmarketcap, OKX has a 24-hour trading volume of $5,561,609,485 and owns over 5% of the total cryptocurrency trading volume.

OKX has a liquidity rating of 500 out of 1000, which isn’t the best when you compare it to other exchanges such as Binance, which has an 804 rating. However, it’s plenty enough to ensure that there is adequate demand on the other side when you decide to sell your assets, giving you a fair price in the process.

The Platforms

Platforms & Ease of Use

OKX has excellent mobile apps available on iOS and Android, and they’ve got a fantastic-looking web browser interface.

Both are extremely easy to use and have clearly displayed “Buy” buttons, so there’s no confusion when it comes to purchasing new assets.

The web browser version of OKX has easy-to-access features such as Trade, Finance, Learn, and Support. These are accessible via dropdown toolbars at the top of the screen.

If you’re a more advanced trader who likes to study the charts, the margin trading screen provides you with all the information you need and looks similar to other exchanges such as Binance and Bybit.

But, when we tried to use this feature, we noticed it wanted us to upgrade our verification level before we could margin trade.

To do so, we had to upload proof of identity (passport) and allow the app to biometrically scan our faces using a mobile phone camera.

OKX is one of those exchanges that will let you have as much fun and trading excitement as it can while keeping the interface clean and simple. We really appreciate the product they’ve created.

Mobile App

While we used the mobile app, the OKX exchange surprised us with how beginner-friendly the app is. When you first open the app, there are pop-up styled prompts that give you short explanations and demonstrations on using certain key features, e.g. funding your account or sending/receiving crypto.

We’re also a big fan of the option to switch between OKX Pro and OKX Lite with the click of a button.

The pro version of the app’s interface provides more onscreen options (Earn, Loans, Jumpstart, Savings, and more), which could confuse you if you’re a beginner, but are fantastic if you’re a more advanced trader.

OKX Lite’s user interface is simple to use and provides you with all of the basic features you need to buy, sell, and trade your crypto assets. You can access the lite version of the app by clicking the profile button (top left) and clicking “Lite”.

But, considering the app goes to great lengths to make OKX beginner friendly, we can’t help but feel it’s overshadowed by the lack of fiat to crypto trading options. Why no fiat deposits and withdrawals, OKX? Why?

Trading Features

Many of OKX’s trading features are aimed at casual traders, providing an excellent “learn” feature with many articles and guides on how to use each feature on OKX.

However, they provide fantastic features for more advanced traders, such as margin trading, short and long selling, perpetual swaps, futures, and options. OKX also allows you to leverage up to 12X and has a maximum borrow limit in place, which I’ll discuss further down the article.

These features are brilliant if you’re looking to increase your earnings by leveraging your cryptocurrency assets through advanced trading methods. As mentioned, OKX will let you execute whatever wacky trading strategy you have, and it has earned our respect for that.

While these features are great, if you’re only looking to buy and sell cryptocurrency, you’ll be pleased with the lite version. Whether you’re a beginner or an advanced user, everyone has access to a suitable platform.

Volume & Liquidity

According to Coinmarketcap, OKX has a 24-hour trading volume of $5,561,609,485 and owns over 5% of the total cryptocurrency trading volume.

OKX has a liquidity rating of 500 out of 1000, which isn’t the best when you compare it to other exchanges such as Binance, which has an 804 rating. However, it’s plenty enough to ensure that there is adequate demand on the other side when you decide to sell your assets, giving you a fair price in the process.

Additional Features

The OKX Wallet

The OKX exchange allows you to buy and sell cryptocurrency and gives you the option to create a wallet named ‘MetaX’. The MetaX wallet is linked to your OKX account and is a place where you can send your cryptocurrency.

Setting up your wallet is incredibly simple, ours was set up with roughly three clicks. We set ours up using the mobile app ( which was seamless), but to connect to the wallet on your computer, you need to open the MetaX app (this is done through the OKX app) and then scan the QR code that appears on the screen. The whole process is easy, even if you’re a technophobe.

While you’re using the wallet, you will notice slightly different options available to you, including the NFT marketplace.

Additionally, OKX allows you to withdraw your assets to an external hot or cold wallet, so if you decide you want to keep your assets elsewhere, you have the option to withdraw to your own wallet. OKX has provided a brilliant how-to guide for withdrawing to a wallet.

Each withdrawal requires you to authenticate the transaction using Google Authenticator, which is good to see, and there is a minimum requirement of 0.00001 BTC to be withdrawn.

While having a wallet available on the OKX exchange is useful, we feel switching between OKX and MetaX could be confusing if you’re new to cryptocurrency. Before you consider using OKX to trade crypto, have a read through some of their guides and try the app out. The good thing is that you don’t have to use the MetaX wallet if you don’t want to.

Staking

The OKX exchange has an ‘Earn’ feature, which allows you to stake your cryptocurrency to earn rewards. The APY % for your returns varies between the different types of cryptocurrency you’re looking at staking. Straight up – OKX’s staking offering is one of the best in the business. Both the breadth and APYs are very competitive.

Staking on OKX requires you to choose between flexible staking and locked staking.

OKX’s interest rates for locked staking are generally higher than you’d find on Coinbase and some other services, but it’s worth remembering your crypto is locked and can’t be used or sold until the agreed time is over. This is important as if your assets begin to lose value, you won’t be able to sell them to limit your loss. Flexible staking allows you to unstake and sell your assets, but the rewards are a lot worse.

When it comes to receiving your staking rewards, they are paid into your OKX account two days after your subscription to the stake begins.

Lending/Borrowing

The OKX exchange allows users to lend cryptocurrency through their exchange without the user needing to go through any credit checks. With OKX, you can borrow 20 assets ranging from BTC, ETH, XRP, SOL, DOT, TRX, ATOM, and others.

But, to borrow cryptocurrency from OKX, you need to provide collateral.

The collateral you need to provide comes in the form of your existing cryptocurrency. The amount you need to provide will vary depending on the cryptocurrency you’re looking at borrowing.

For example, if we wanted to borrow 30 USDT, we would need to provide 0.001 BTC as collateral.

OKX has an in-depth set of terms you must agree to before applying for a cryptocurrency loan. You can read more about them on their flexible crypto loan T&C page.

Before you agree to any loans, it’s worth remembering that your crypto is at risk if you fail to repay the loan or if you’re collateral falls below the value of your loan.

Each loan has a floating interest rate which changes on the hour. At the moment, it’s sat at 2.83% APY, which isn’t too bad compared to fiat loans.

As we mentioned earlier, there is a maximum borrow limit of 1,000,000 USDT per loan.

While we tested OKX’s loan feature, we did notice how easy it was to borrow cryptocurrency. Initially, this is a good thing. However, if you don’t know what you are doing, it can lead you down a slippery path resulting in you losing all of your assets.

Customer Support

OKX’s customer service has been reported to be hit & miss by other users. So we put them to the test.

The first thing we noticed was they have an extensive FAQ section throughout their platform, and they also provide an excellent ‘Learn’ area packed full of guides and information on all of OKX’s features. I’m a big fan of this feature as 90% of the time, we found the answer we needed after a short search.

However, when we opted to speak to a customer care team member, we were greeted by a bot. The chatbot wasn’t necessarily a bad touch, and it’s been well programmed with plenty of knowledge. But, we would have liked to have contact with a human who could sort out the problem there and then.

Once the chatbot has exhausted its options, it does help you submit a support ticket request, and you’re informed customer service will reply in 6 hours.

The OKX customer support took over the estimated 6 hours to respond, which isn’t ideal, but we found their answer to our question to be satisfactory. Overall, we feel the process is decent but could be improved with the implementation of a live chat service.

We also found that OKX has some unique support channels, such as a Telegram account and a phone number that offers you 24/7 support.

Phone Number : +1 226 798 4487

Other contact methods can be found on their contact page.

NFTs

Lately, the crypto world has been going crazy for NFTs, and OKX hasn’t let the opportunity pass them by. OKX offers an NFT marketplace which you can access through their MetaX wallet, allowing you to buy and sell NFTs.

The NFT platform is easy to access on both the app and web browser to buy and sell NFTs with no trouble at all.

Each NFT is priced individually and will be priced using either ETH, OKB, OKT, USDT, USDC or WETH.

An extensive NFT offering is available, including the super-famous Bored Ape Yacht Club NFTs, which have skyrocketed over the past year.

Buying and selling NFTs on the OKX platform is easy and only takes a couple of clicks. If you’re new to the NFT world but already have some crypto, the OKX platform is a brilliant place to learn the ropes.

Conclusions

Conclusion For Beginners

If you’re a beginner looking to enter the crypto world, the OKX exchange has a clear and easy-to-use layout. It’s simple to buy and sell your crypto without messing around with complex features.

However, as the exchange is crypto to crypto-only, it’s not a good choice for beginners. Even though you can buy and sell crypto, you won’t be able to exchange your assets for fiat without using a costly third-party service.

Another reason OKX might not be for you is if you want to ask a lot of questions. Their customer support isn’t bad, but sometimes you need to dig before finding your answer, and it can be overwhelming if you’re new to it all.

Conclusion For Experienced Traders

OKX is a trader’s exchange; no doubt about it. Between the extensive crypto offering, the low fees, the various derivatives, crypto loans, and strong staking offering, you’ll undoubtedly enjoy OKX if you are a seasoned trader. It manages to stay simple despite the many complex options available, which is an impressive feat. Overall, we really enjoyed using OKX and had a great time reviewing it too.