OKex, which is located in Belize and was launched by Star XU in 2014, is a cryptocurrency and digital asset exchange that has garnered mixed reviews. The Hong Kong-based corporation has significant financial backing. Originally established in China, the exchange and its sister company OKCoin migrated to Hong Kong when the Chinese government banned the trading of initial coin offers (ICOs) and are now focused on the international market.
OKCoin spawned the OKex exchange, which serves as a platform for more experienced bitcoin dealers. OKCoin is the simpler exchange, as it focuses entirely on the buying and selling of cryptocurrencies and ICO tokens, whereas OKex is a more complex platform that resembles traditional financial stock exchanges.
According to CoinMarketCap.com, OKex is one of the leading international cryptocurrency exchanges, with a daily turnover of $1.5 billion through its Bitcoin futures trading product. In recent times, however, allegations of exaggeration and manipulation have been leveled against the exchange, as they have against other large cryptocurrency exchanges owned by the Chinese.
Trading platform
The OKex exchange platform is accessible in-browser and as desktop client software that may be downloaded. Due to the size of trading platforms, downloading software that handles the majority of the demand reduces the possibility of a browser crashing due to memory or processing concerns. Because OKex’s exchange platform is more professional, it has more stringent hardware requirements than the average bitcoin exchange.
The exchange platform is well-designed and resembles high-end, standard trading platforms for financial markets. A charting application, developed by OKCoin’s parent company and sister exchange, is also a significant tool that traders with experience would value.
Exchange markets
As is customary for cryptocurrency exchanges, the OKex platform supports both crypto-to-crypto and fiat-to-crypto trading. Unfortunately, the Chinese Yuan is now the only accepted fiat currency. Currently, the exchange supports over a hundred cryptocurrencies and tokens, with new ones being added regularly.
Additionally, the site enables margin trading with a maximum leverage of 20:1, the highest of any cryptocurrency traded or CFDs broker. Due to the price volatility of cryptocurrencies, margin trading is often limited to 20:1.
OKex also provides futures trading for Bitcoin, Ethereum, and EOS with weekly, biweekly, and monthly contracts. Futures contracts may also be traded on margin with leverage.
Fees
OKex’s trading fees are one of its greatest strengths, and the exchange is one of the most affordable in the cryptocurrency market. The fees are graded based on the average 30-day trading volume, yet even at the most expensive level, they are still affordable. Maker fees of 0.15 percent and taker fees of 0.2 percent are the highest trading expenses for low-volume accounts. This decreases to 0.02 percent and 0.05 percent for makers and takers fees, respectively.
Security and Justice
As one of the major cryptocurrency exchanges in the world with strong financial backing, it is reasonable to believe that OKex’s cybersecurity architecture conforms to industry standards. The exchange lists GSLB, distributed server clusters, and cold storage multi-signature wallets as its security features.
In October 2017, many OKex account holders reported that their bitcoin holdings had been stolen from their compromised accounts. According to the exchange, account holders’ failure to secure their accounts and disclose passwords and logins is to blame. Suggestions that the exchange’s security procedures were inadequate were refuted, and fresh account and wallet security instructions were provided to clients.
Support
OKex provides customer assistance via a phone number, an email-based ticketing system, and many chat applications and social media platforms. Positive feedback on assistance levels is combined with some online concerns regarding delayed response times or inability to resolve issues. In general, the exchange’s protocols and attitude appear to be inflexible, but users who know this and behave accordingly report few problems.
Conclusion
OKex is a well-funded exchange with ambitious future goals. OKex is one of the few cryptocurrency exchanges that provide experienced traders with a professional trading platform, replete with the functionality and trading formats of large, traditional financial exchanges. An additional benefit that will appeal to more experienced traders is low trading fees.
Although this is expected to change soon, the fact that CNY is the only fiat currency available on the platform implies that OKex remains mainly focused on the Chinese market.
