Welcome curious crypto-heads! Let’s talk about OKEx, the popular centralized cryptocurrency exchange based in crypto-friendly Malta – with another HQ in Seychelles, boasting hundreds of tokens and futures trading pairs. Founded back in 2017, the brains behind the operation, Jay Hao pivoted from games development into cryptocurrency to start his exchange.
With many industries and crypto-projects suffering during a tumultuous 2020, OKEx has managed to beat the trend and remarkably become the exchange with the largest top-tier trading volume for derivatives.
Should you believe the hype? Perhaps yes. Read on as we explore the positives, the negatives, and more.
The Positives
- More than 30 fiat currencies are accepted on the platform through 9 different well-known payment providers, allowing you to quick-buy one of 11 different cryptocurrencies to get you started. This is great for first-time traders, who can also benefit from the OKEx Academy, offering free resources with a great UX/UI.
- Being such a popular platform means their liquidity is incredibly high, for example, there is over $1.5bn worth of BTC and $500m worth of ETH being traded every day.
- Cryptocurrencies and derivatives can be day-traded 24/7, through spot or margin trading or futures contracts.
- OKEx offers a highly-secure wallet and advanced portfolio management tools for hodling and crypto-mining.
- One of the few popular exchanges that trade derivative instruments, with leverage available up to 100x in certain cases.
- Zero deposit fees. Withdrawal fees depend on the type of coin and payment provider used.
- OKEx has an Earn Program which allows traders to earn interest on their crypto-holdings. This customer-to-customer lending platform allows users to make backed loans to other users, earning loan interest in the process. Lenders and borrowers can both have some say in the terms offered.
The Negatives
- Vulnerability to external influences (this affects all centralised exchanges). An example being the recent controversy surrounding suspended withdrawals.
- Traders have to pay a small amount of BTC to withdraw their fiat currencies.
- In the event of a major hack, it’s unknown whether they have an insurance fund.
- The platform is geared more to seasoned traders and can be seen as sophisticated by some new crypto investors.
Which cryptocurrencies can you find on OKEx?
With over 500 verified market pairings and another 50+ awaiting verification, it would be pointless to list them all here. Instead, you can rest assured that most quality cryptocurrencies can be found on this platform, due to popular demand.
Some information about fees
Whilst some exchanges like to keep their trading fees simple, it’s actually the complexity of OKEx that makes them a very appealing proposition to traders. Rather than splitting their traders by free and paid, they instead define them as Normal and VIP based on their trading volumes from the last 30 days. Normal traders can benefit from 5 different tiers of commissions, whereas VIP users have 7 different tiers. Once you’re trading over 1,000BTC a month, you’re a VIP. Many large-volume traders are excited by the fact that the more you trade, the lower your trading fees become.
Normal User
VIP User
Information about maker and taker fees can be found here.
The final say
OKEx has done a pretty stunning job of entering the market, proving their reliability, and winning hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of crypto and derivative traders. Their system provides excellent security, flexibility, and many incentives to trade, with the infrastructure to ensure that trading activity is managed smoothly. For crypto-investors who don’t want to trade, for whatever reason, the interest-earning C2C loan system is worth some thought and consideration.
