OKEx is one of the leading exchanges globally, given its high daily trade volume and the number of traders that use the platform.
While there is no doubt it will be a good trading platform for most traders, it is vital to understand what it is all about before getting started.
This OKEX review highlights the key things every trader needs to know about the platform to help ensure you make an informed choice on whether to give the crypto futures platform a try or not.
Overview: OKEx Review
OKEx is a crypto exchange platform that has been in operation for quite some time now. The company was founded in 2017 by Xu Mingxing, a Chinese entrepreneur.
Although the company still maintains its Hong Kong office, it has its headquarters in Malta, given the friendlier regulations regarding crypto trading.
OKEx presents itself as a global digital assets exchange that gives traders advanced financial services using blockchain technology.
According to OKEx, their daily trade volumes are more than $1.5 billion, and the platform has millions of loyal users in over 100 countries. Hence, they have deep enough liquidity and good user numbers to boost ‘beginners’ confidence in giving the platform a try.
OKEx Market Offerings
OKEx tries to cater to all kinds of traders in their market offering as they offer both spot and derivatives trading. Therefore, regardless of how you prefer to make money with your digital assets, the platform should cater to your needs.
There is no doubt that OKEx is one of the most prolific trading platforms for trading product options. But, what makes it even better is that all their products are well-structured for easy trading and have adequate liquidity.
Here is an overview of some of the main products you can get when trading on the OKEx platform.
- Spot Trading
Spot trading is always prevalent for both new and experienced crypto traders. The OKEx spot exchange allows traders to exchange over 150 coins across more than 400 trading pairs. Better still, the platform is always adding more trading options at a steady rate.
Besides the more traditional coins like Bitcoin and Ethereum, the OKEx spot trading platform includes the company’s own exchange token and OKB, which creates a market with almost any trading pair a trader can wish for when trading.
Another aspect of their spot trading market that traders will love is that it easily converts fiat currencies to crypto. Traders can use the most popular payment platforms like Visa, Apple Pay, WeChat Pay, Alipay, and bank transfer to buy cryptocurrency.
Additionally, OKEx will not limit you to using only specific fiat currencies for their spot trading market like many other exchanges where you can only use USD. The high leverage crypto trading platform supports the Chinese yen, Canadian dollar, Hong Kong dollar, Japanese yen, and many other currencies from across the globe.
- Future Contracts
The OKEx exchange boasts highly robust futures contracts that prevent traders from buying and settling coins. Futures are always welcomed by professional crypto traders as they offer even more opportunities for making a profit.
OKEx allows for futures trading for their primary coins like Bitcoins, EOS, and Ethereum. The platform provides highly flexible contracts with weekly, bi-weekly, and monthly options.
The dozens of futures contracts offered by OKEx are also priced in Tether. What’s more, the exchange also has perpetual swap contracts that are more like futures except that, unlike the latter, they do not have settlement and expiry dates set.
The OKEx exchange provides up to 100x leverage for their futures contracts, which is impressive compared to others. The 100x leverage means the traders can multiply their investment up to 100 times.
- Margin Trading
OKEx also allows for margin or leverage trading. Like futures, they only allow it for Tether against some specific coins like Bitcoin and Ethereum.
In this market, the traders leverage the market to go a certain way, and if they are correct, they multiply their funds.
For instance, a trader can deposit $50 and use it for margin trading. If they leverage it at 2X, it means that if the market goes how they predict, they get to double their money. However, if the market goes the other way, the trader loses double what was leveraged.
Margin trading gives traders some of the highest profits they can get from trading crypto, but leverage trading is also the riskiest as there is the potential to lose more money than what you invested.
Besides heading and speculation, margin trading allows the crypto trader to borrow money for use. The money is borrowed against their crypto assets or funds in their wallet.
- Options Trading
There is also an options trading market on OKEx. It will be another excellent option for the more experienced traders. It is one of the most complex markets out there, and many traders that have been at it for a long time are yet to give it a try as there are more risks involved.
With options trading, you need to have the most profound understanding of how the crypto market works. It is a little like futures contracts but just more complicated.
Options are tradeable contracts that promise traders limited risks and endless potential for making profits. However, there is more to it than this, but OKEx provides some good information on what they are all about to ensure you make an informed decision before jumping into options.
- Lending & Borrowing
Lending and borrowing are probably not what comes to mind when you think of crypto trading. However, it is still essential to include the product in this OKEx review as it is part of its offering.
For this product, the traders can deposit their crypto with OKEx, which lends it to traders that want to do margin trading. Users then earn interest on their cryptos without any direct trade.
Additionally, the crypto exchange also allows traders to borrow coins from others at a set interest rate. OKEx regulates the entire process to protect both the lender and buyer.
OKEx Trading Platform
Elements on the trading platform like tools, charts, and user interface always matter as they determine the overall user experience and convenience when you want to trade crypto.
OKEx seems to understand this better than most other exchanges, as they have one of the most intuitive and user-friendly trading platforms.
One of the best things about their platform is that it offers greater flexibility. Besides the web-based platform, they also have a desktop version that you can easily set up by downloading the software.
OKEx provides easy-to-follow directions on how to set up a desktop trading platform. Additionally, OKEx supports mobile trading via their iOS and Android apps. Using the OKEx mobile app will make making transactions far easier. Moreover, the mobile app will give a sense of liberty as you can carry out transactions on the go quickly and efficiently.
Besides platform flexibility, there are also various helpful trading tools on the OKEx platform. They include the OKCoin, which is a charting package developed by OKEx’s sister company.
The professional-looking interface, real-time crypto price indicators, and various dashboard data analysis and comparison tools ensure an even better trader experience.
OKEx Trading Fees
You should never overlook trading fees when choosing a crypto exchange platform as they affect your value for money and eat into your potential profits.
But, given the increasing competition in the industry, OKEx and other leading crypto exchanges have tried to keep their fees as low as possible.
While still not the cheapest platform to use, OKEx maintains what many traders agree are more industry-standard fees. Like most platforms, they have varying fees for their spot and futures markets.
Also, OKEX has a tiered system that determines the fees the traders pay. They classify traders based on their monthly trade volume and have 5 levels for their normal users and 7 VIP levels.
Level one represents the regular users with trading volumes of under $5 million, while the highest level, VIP7, represents high volume traders with over $1 billion monthly trade volumes.
- Spot Market Trading Fees
If you prefer the spot market, you need to know that OKEx charges both maker and taker fees based on your level. For example, for a regular user on the lowest level (under $5 million trading volume), the maker fee is 0.10%, while the taker fee is 0.15%.
The fees reduce as you get to higher levels. A regular user at level 5 pays 0.06% as the maker fee and 0.09% as the taker fee. VIP7 OKEx users have a negative maker fee of -0.01% and 0.03% taker fee, which are the lowest you can pay when trading on the platform.
- Perpetual & Futures Markets Trading Fees
OKEx also charges competitive trading fees for their futures and perpetual swap contracts. However, like the spot market, these fees will depend on your trading level on the platform.
For regular users on OKEx’a level 1, the futures contracts will attract 0.02% maker fees and 0.05% taker fees. Those in the VIP1 category will pay the same fees as the level 1 regular users.
However, for the VIP7 traders, the maker fees are -0.01%, while the taker fees are 0.03%, which seems to be a standard fee when trading at OKEx.
OKEx fees for perpetual swaps are similar to the futures contract fees for regular users. For example, level 1 users pay 0.02% maker fees and 0.05% taker fees. However, there are some differences in the VIP levels as VIP7 pays -0.02% maker fees and 0.03% taker fees.
- Options Trading Fees
The OKEx fees for trading options also follow the tiered system like the other two options above. At level 1 with the lowest volume, regular traders pay the highest fees: 0.02% maker fee and 0.05% taker fee.
VIP7 traders pay the lowest fees for options trading as they only need to part with the 0.03 taker fee and nothing for the maker fee as it is pegged at -0.01%.
OKEx Deposits & Withdrawals Fees
OKEx will not charge traders any deposit or withdrawal fees regardless of their tier level. But for withdrawals, this does not exempt you from certain charges such as the network fee. However, the network fee originates from the blockchain load and is hence not an OKEx withdrawal fee.
For Bitcoin, the network fee is often around 0.0005 BTC and can sometimes vary a little but not by any significant margin.
You might still get some small charges from the payment method you are using when you deposit funds. For example, bank transfers can have things like conversion charges or transaction fees.
Many traders would probably also want to know whether there are deposit and withdrawal limits when using the OKEx exchange. Limits are primarily for withdrawals, and they depend on the trader’s level.
If you are a level 1 regular user, you can withdraw a maximum of 500 BTC every 24 hours. On the other hand, the VIP7 traders can withdraw up to 2,000 BTC every 24 hours.
Supported Payment Methods
Nothing is more frustrating for crypto traders than having difficulties depositing funds into their accounts when they want to trade. Hence, before you join OKEx or any other platform, it is vital to know the payment methods they support to ensure they will suit you.
OKEx tries to incorporate as many payment methods as possible, given they are a global digital assets exchange with millions of traders from different countries.
But, the main deposit methods they accept include Mastercard & Visa debit/credit cards, PayPal, bank transfers, Google Pay, Apple Pay, Skrill, and Western Union. Also, you can even pay using gift cards from Amazon, Steam, and Google Play.
How To Register an account on OKEx?
Getting started at OKEX is relatively straightforward, and you should have your account ready and the deposit made in just a few minutes. Here is a summary of the main steps you need to follow.
- Click the “Sign Up” button on the top right of the screen
- Fill up your email on the window that opens and click “Get Code.”
- Open your email to retrieve the 6-digit code sent by OKEx
- Enter the code on the sign-up page and create a password
- Agree to the terms and conditions and then click the blue “Sign Up” button
- Now you are all set and can go back to the dashboard to start trading
OKEx Customer Support
Although OKEx is a stable and easy-to-use exchange platform, you may still need to get some customer support at some point. Whether you have issues with your account or want to inquire about some new trading pairs, the company support is always beneficial.
OKEx provides multiple channels for users to contact them. They include an email, live chat, and phone calls. They respond reasonably fast to email queries, and their live chat is available pretty much throughout. Hence, regardless of your issue, they have a reliable channel you can use to get a solution.
OKEx also has a support center with a rich collection of content that should answer most of your queries and eliminate the need to contact support. This support center includes detailed FAQs and a beginners guide that explains everything you need to know when starting on OKEx.
Supported Countries
OKEx was created to allows traders from all parts of the world to trade their digital currencies freely. The exchange support up to 11 different languages, which include English, Spanish, Russian and French.
Therefore, you can use the platform from anywhere globally and understand best in a language except a few countries. The countries that do not support OKEx include Syria, Sudan, Cuba, Ecuador, Bolivia, North Korea, Kyrgyzstan, Malaysia, Hong Kong, and Bangladesh.
If your country is not on the list, you can almost be sure to use OKEx as the exchange is available in more than 100 countries worldwide.
Also, it is worth mentioning that although there are different reasons you cannot use OKEx in some countries, in most instances, it is because of regulation in that particular country and not the exchange.
-
How Secure Is OKEx?
Most exchange platforms have significantly improved their security over the years. OKEx is up there with those with some of the most secure systems.
OKEx uses security features like mandatory two-factor authentication for sensitive things like funds withdrawal, and they use anti-phishing code for all the emails they send you.
Other security measures like google authenticator and mobile verification for funds withdrawal add crucial levels of security to the OKEx platform.
-
Is OKEx available in the US?
Unfortunately, OKEx is not available in the USA or any of its territories. The US has stringent laws and regulations regarding cryptocurrency exchanges, so few exchanges can get a license to operate there.
Conclusion: Is OKEx a legit crypto exchange?
The OKEx exchange is a legit crypto trade platform. This OKEx review clearly shows it is a trusted platform with millions of users from across the world. Also, it has been around for quite some time, and if it were a scam, it would have been exposed a long time ago.
Overall, the exchange is secure and easy to use and offers enough products to cater to all traders. What’s more, it has good customer support, and sign-up is quick and easy.
Lastly, the exchange can still improve, such as adding extra trading tools and other innovations like trader funds insurance. But, overall, it is one of the best crypto exchanges and is hence worth a shot.
You might also like:
- Is Bitcoin Real Money?: Understanding Different Types Of Money - June 28, 2024
- Bitcoin Transaction Accelerator: 5 Services to Unstuck Your BTC - September 23, 2023
- What Is Bitcoin Private Key? Everything You Need To Know !! - June 2, 2023