OKcoin was founded in 2013 by Star Xu and was initially based out of Beijing before expanding globally and is currently regulated in the United States, with its headquarters located in San Francisco. Xu has a background in technology management and has worked at Yahoo and Alibaba in technical departments and held the position of Chief Technology Officer at Docin.com. Star Xu was also the founder of the popular exchange OKEx.
OKcoin is globally licensed with offices located in Miami, Malta, Hong Kong, Singapore, and Japan. They have over 100 employees, and customers enjoy the OKcoin platform from over 190 countries. OKcoin is registered with the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) in the USA, registered with FINTRAC in Canada, registered in Malta and with the Dutch Central Bank to legally serve European customers, and registered in Hong Kong and Singapore, providing legally registered services to the Asian markets.
OKcoin Trading Platform and User Experience
The OKcoin platform is very clean, easy to navigate and simple to use. The exchange is web-based and can be accessed from a computer or mobile device, and through the beautifully designed and intuitive mobile app on IOS and Android.
OKcoin features one of the most advanced trading platforms with highly liquid markets and a stable platform. The trading platform has all the trading features and technical analysis tools to make informed trading decisions. In addition, it is very smooth, with orders executed instantaneously, which is essential with how fast crypto moves. If you are interested in upping your trading game, be sure to check out Guy’s three-part series on how to perform technical analysis like a pro.
OKcoin underwent a total rebranding overhaul in April 2021, changing the look and feel and the platform and what a fantastic upgrade it was. The company has discovered their identity, brand and niche in the crypto industry. The platform is very user friendly and is suitable for both advanced and beginner traders and hodlers alike.
Trade Types/Instruments
OKcoin provides traders with advanced and straightforward trading types and technical analysis tools. The platform supports margin trading, futures, Iceberg orders, trailing stops, price alert notifications and TWAPs. In addition, traders can trade popular assets with up to 3x leverage.
OKcoin Premiere
OKcoin has a premiere option designed for professional traders and business partners. With a premiere account, traders enjoy access to dedicated coverage, accelerated fiat processing, and a range of exclusive product features. Premiere members can benefit from instant funding options via SEN and PrimeX and wire pre-credit up to $100,000 to ensure they can begin trading instantly. Premiere members can also benefit from additional market-making incentives and earn rebates and additional perks for consistent liquidity provision. Here is a look at the premiere benefits.
Asset Selection
One of the best things about OKcoin is that they are passionate about being the first to bring many great crypto projects to the mass markets and often beat their fellow regulated competitors in this regard. For example, they were the first US registered exchange to provide US-based users with access to Avalanche and rare, hard to find tokens like Axie’s Smooth love potion (SLP), the Star Atlas (ATLAS) Metaverse token, Pocket Network (POKT) and were the first exchange to list the revolutionary CityCoins both MiamiCoin (MIA) and New York Coin (NYC).
While OKcoin is great at beating rivals to the punch in offering new and exciting tokens that cannot be found on other regulated exchanges, being a regulated exchange is a double-edged sword in terms of what assets they can offer, which means coin support is limited.
OKcoin suffers the same restrictions as other US regulated exchanges such as Coinbase, which results in them supporting substantially fewer assets for users to choose from than many non-US regulated exchanges as they need to be careful not to list any assets which could be deemed securities.
Fees
There are no fees charged for users who utilize the Earn section, which is great. OKcoin has also kicked things up a notch by removing any transaction fees associated with recurring buys set to happen automatically, meaning that users can dollar cost average into their favourite tokens like pros without any fees. Note that this has been a long-running promotional offer that may end at some point, but any users who participate are notified before this offer ends.
The only fees incurred are for spot trading in the form of maker and taker fees and some withdrawal and deposit methods which will be discussed later in the article. Similar to FTX and Coinbase, OKcoin’s fees are based on a tiered structure, with maker fees starting at a beautifully low 0.1% and taker fee at just 0.2%. This makes OKcoin competitive with price leaders such as FTX and Binance while being significantly lower than Coinbase.
Deposits and Withdrawal Options
Users can deposit funds by transferring crypto directly or depositing fiat, with the supported currencies being USD, EUR, SGD, and BRL. Note that funds can be used to trade instantly, but any funds deposited or crypto purchased cannot be withdrawn for ten days. The platform supports bank transfers, wire transfers, Apple Pay, and crypto purchases via debit and credit cards for fiat. The fees vary greatly depending on the user location and method, with zero fees for many wire and bank transfer options and up to 3.99% for debit and credit card purchases. I recommend checking out their deposit and withdrawal options and associated fees found in OKcoin Exchange official website.
Security
OKcoin takes security seriously, as every good exchange should. The platform has several different layered protection systems in place that helps prevent, detect, and address risks and vulnerabilities of the platform. The security features supported are:
- 2FA
- Password on account access and optional secondary withdrawal password
- Mobile verification option can be enabled to confirm withdrawals or security changes
- Anti-phishing code in emails
- Email verification
- Round the clock transaction monitoring
- Users can set trusted IP addresses
95% of the funds held by OKcoin are kept in cold storage, away from hackers, and unlike many major exchanges, OKcoin has not suffered any known hacks to date. OKcoin works with external cybersecurity firms to address vulnerabilities and undertake regular security audits.
Final Thought
How OKcoin has grown and evolved from its early days is truly impressive, and I highly respect what the team is doing. After undergoing their rebranding, it seems that OKcoin has found its identity, hit its stride and cemented its niche in the space, which is offering and supporting tokens for early projects before any other regulated exchange. They have been doing that very well.
OKcoin retains a deeply personal touch with their community, with many of their team members being available to be contacted through social media and are often keen to respond. It is refreshing to see a platform that cares so much about the crypto community by supporting the entire crypto ecosystem through funds and grants. It is not profit crazed, milking every bit of profit from its users like many other exchanges. Their support staff is friendly and professional, with much better response times than many other platforms.
