OKX: fact sheet

What is OKX and who operates it?

OKX is a centralised crypto exchange — a company that matches buyers and sellers and usually holds customers’ crypto for them. New to the idea? Read what a crypto exchange is first.

The clearest official description of who runs it comes from US prosecutors. In February 2025 the US Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York described the operator as “Aux Cayes Fintech Co. Ltd, d/b/a “OKEx,” d/b/a “OKX” (“OKX”), a Seychelles-based entity, that since at least 2017 has operated OKX, one of the largest cryptocurrency exchanges in the world”. It has also traded under the name OKEx.

OKX’s own About page says it is “serving millions of users in over 100 countries.” Like most large exchanges, OKX works through different companies in different regions — for example, OKX Middle East Fintech FZE in Dubai and OKX Europe Limited in Malta. The company you sign up with depends on where you live, and so do the products and protections you get.

Where is OKX licensed or registered?

Entries we could open on an official register or regulator page, as of 2 October 2026:

We could not read the whole European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) MiCA register file in this check, so confirm the Malta entry there yourself. ESMA’s advice to clients is to verify whether a provider is authorised under MiCA in its register; it also reminds clients of unauthorised providers “that they do not benefit from MiCA safeguards, including protections for client assets.” OKX’s US-facing About page shows the licensing number NMLS #1767779 and a San Francisco address; we did not check that number on the Nationwide Multistate Licensing System. Our guide on checking if a crypto firm is authorised lists the official registers.

Why did Malta’s regulator warn about an OKX clone?

Because fraudsters were pretending to be OKX. The MFSA’s June 2026 warning says an entity was contacting consumers from the email address [email protected] and misusing the details of OKX Europe Limited. The MFSA states that the address “has NO association with OKX Europe Limited.”

This is a common pattern with well-known brands: scammers copy a real firm’s name and licence details to look trustworthy. Contact any exchange only through the address you typed yourself or the details on the regulator’s register. Our page on clone firms explains the warning signs.

What can you trade on OKX?

OKX’s UAE site describes itself as offering “Spot & Derivatives Products”. Its menu lists, among others: buying and selling crypto, peer-to-peer (P2P) trading, convert, spot, futures, options, trading bots, copy trading, earn products, loans and OTC trading. Spot means you buy or sell the coin itself for immediate delivery; futures and options are derivatives, contracts whose value follows a coin’s price.

Availability varies a lot by country. OKX’s own disclosure, for example, restricts derivatives-related, “cefi-related” and P2P services in the United Kingdom, and derivatives in Australia, Brazil and South Korea.

What fees does OKX charge?

OKX’s fee page says it can offer lower rates “according to the trading volume and customer types”. The page did not show fee figures when we checked it on 2 October 2026 (it loaded as OKX’s US version), so we do not quote a rate here. Check the official OKX fee page for your region before you trade.

When you compare, write down four numbers: the trading fee for your tier, the spread (the gap between buy and sell prices), deposit fees and withdrawal fees for your currency and coin. Illustrative arithmetic only: if a platform charged 0.1% per trade, a £500 buy would cost £500 × 0.001 = £0.50 in trading fees, before the spread. Our lesson on crypto trading fees shows why the headline rate is rarely the whole cost.

Does OKX publish proof of reserves?

Yes. OKX’s proof-of-reserves page says it uses zk-STARK proofs, a type of zero-knowledge proof that lets you check your balance was counted without revealing other accounts. It used a Merkle tree method from November 2022 to March 2023 before switching. OKX states that it “maintains a 1:1 reserve of all account assets” and describes each report as “a snapshot of our OKX account asset balances at the time of the data capture.”

Treat any proof of reserves with care. The US Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB), which oversees auditors, warned in March 2023: “PoR engagements are not audits and, consequently, the related reports do not provide any meaningful assurance to investors or the public.” It added that such reports likely do not address a platform’s liabilities, or whether the assets shown were borrowed. In other words, a snapshot of OKX’s wallets tells you what it held at one moment, not what it owes. Our explainer on proof of reserves covers the method and its limits.

What did the US Justice Department announce about OKX in 2025?

On 24 February 2025, the US Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York announced that OKX “pled guilty today to one count of operating an unlicensed money transmitting business.” Key points, quoted from that release:

• “In connection with today’s guilty plea and sentencing, OKX agreed to pay monetary penalties totaling more than $504 million.”
• OKX “agreed to criminally forfeit $420.3 million and pay a criminal fine of approximately $84.4 million”.
• Prosecutors said OKX was used by numerous customers “as a vehicle for laundering the proceeds of suspicious and criminal activities, including more than five billion dollars of suspicious transactions and illicit proceeds”.
• “OKX is continuing to retain the Consultant, at its own cost, through February 2027”.

The press release headline gives the total as “More Than $500 Million”; the body gives the more precise “more than $504 million”. Read the release in full via the sources below.

Which countries can’t use OKX?

OKX’s Risk & Compliance Disclosure (last updated 8 July 2026) lists these restricted locations: “Afghanistan, Canada, Cuba, Hong Kong, Iran, India, Japan, Malaysia, Nepal, North Korea, Syria, the Crimea, Donetsk and Luhansk regions of Ukraine, certain jurisdictions within the United States of America including all U.S. territories such as Puerto Rico, American Samoa, Guam, Northern Mariana Island, and the U.S. Virgin Islands (St. Croix, St. John and St. Thomas), and Uzbekistan.”

It also restricts particular services in other places, including the United Kingdom (derivatives-related, cefi-related and P2P services), Australia (derivatives and cefi), Brazil and South Korea (derivatives and P2P), the Bahamas (retail products), Russia (fiat payments) and Eritrea (P2P). These lists change; read the current version before you sign up.

What should you check before you sign up with OKX?

Use this list before you send OKX any money. Each step takes a few minutes and uses official sources, not the platform’s marketing.

1. Your country and product. Check the restricted-locations list and whether the product you want (for example futures) is offered where you live.
2. The entity. Note which OKX company your terms name, then look it up on your regulator’s register — and on ESMA’s register if you are in the EU.
3. Contact details. Use only the address you typed yourself. Malta’s regulator has already warned about a fake OKX compliance email.
4. Total cost. Find the fee for your tier, the spread, and deposit and withdrawal fees.
5. Custody. Decide how much to keep on the exchange; see wallets and private keys.
6. Reserves. If you hold funds there, check your balance appears in the latest proof-of-reserves snapshot.
7. The record. Read the February 2025 DOJ release yourself.

What are the risks of using OKX?

Every risk that applies to crypto platforms in general applies to OKX:

• Price risk. The UK Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) says: “If you decide to invest in crypto then you should be prepared to lose all your money, for any one of a variety of reasons, including sudden market moves, the failure of a firm, poor segregation of client funds or cyberattacks.”
• No compensation scheme. The FCA says crypto “is largely unregulated in the UK, so it is highly unlikely you will be covered by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme”. In the US, the SEC says of the protections that apply to brokerage accounts: “There are no such protections for accounts that you place with crypto asset entities.”
• Platform failure. The SEC noted in 2023: “Over the past year, a number of crypto asset entities have faced severe financial difficulties, sometimes resulting in suspending customers’ ability to withdraw their assets.”
• Leverage. Futures and other derivatives usually let you trade with borrowed money, which magnifies losses as well as gains. The US self-regulatory body FINRA’s day-trading risk disclosure warns that when you trade with borrowed funds you can lose more than you originally put in.
• Impersonation. Fake emails using the OKX name exist; Malta’s regulator has warned about one.

Blockhorizon is an education site. This fact sheet is not a recommendation to open an account with, or avoid, any platform. We have not rated this exchange; see our rating methodology.