OKCoin

OKCoin Review

What is OKCoin?

OKCoin is one of the largest fiat-to-crypto trading platforms in the world. Founded in 2013, OKCoin offers advanced features for crypto beginners and high-volume traders alike, enabling users in 184 countries worldwide to exchange USD and EUR for Bitcoin, Tethers, USDK, Bitcoin Cash, Ethereum, Ethereum Classic, Decred, EOS, Litecoin, XRP, Cardano, 0x, Stellar, Zcash, TRX, and other digital assets.

As a registered Money Services Business (MSB) with the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) and a Virtual Financial Asset Act (VFAA) exchange with a transitory provision permissioned by the Malta Financial Services Authority, OKCoin claims to be on a mission to make digital assets accessible to the world while complying with the highest of regulatory standards.

OKCoin states that security is their no. 1 priority and that they employ “industry-leading security practices”. 

Angel Investments

In 2013, the exchange reportedly got millions of US dollars of angel investments from VenturesLab, co-founded by the globally recognized Tim Draper, who invested in leading companies such as Hotmail, Baidu, and Tesla. In early 2014, the exchange reportedly received a 10 million US dollars investment from China’s famous venture capital fund Ceyuan and Longling Capital, owned by the founder of the Hong Kong listed company Meitu (01357.HK).

Liquidity

On the date of last updating this review (2 December 2021) the 24-hour trading volume was more than USD 58.7 million, according to Coinmarketcap. This means that this exchange has grown sizeable in the past 20 months, as the 24-hour trading volume was USD 4.45 million on 5 March 2020. USD 58.7 million is, however, still not a very impressive 24 hour trading volume if you compare it to its global competition. 

Mobile Support

If you require that your exchange is also available as an application or a downloadable client for your desktop, then you have come to the right place. OKCoin is available for download at both the App Store and Google Play. It is also available as a download client for both macOS and Windows.

Restricted investors

OKCoin accepts US-investors from 30 different states in America. The exchange has announced however that they are offering trading also to other US-state residents within short. In any event, US-investors should as always do their own independent assessment of any problems arising from their residency or citizenship. The states from where the exchange currently accepts investors are the following: Alabama, Arkansas, Colorado, Connecticut, Georgia, Idaho, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Utah, Washington, Wisconsin and Wyoming.

Other restricted areas, from which users may not trade on OKCoin, include Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Crimea, Sudan, Syria, Malaysia, Bangladesh, Bolivia, Ecuador, and Kyrgyzstan.

Team

The team behind the OKoin exchange is very experienced. The most recent addition to the group is Hong Fang, who was announced as Chairman of OKCoin and Chief Operating Office of OK Group on 24 September 2019. The exchange then also stated that Ms. Fang, in her capacity as one of OKCoin’s early investors, was the perfect candidate to drive the global expansion of OKCoin while also overseeing operations at OK Group.

Liquidity

The trading volume at this exchange is not overly impressive. On the date of last updating this review (2 January 2020), OKCoin’s 24 hour trading volume was USD 1.7 million. This placed OKCoin on place no. 124 on the list of the exchanges in the world with the highest 24 hour trading volumes.

So, if you are a trader that requires high trading volume from your next exchange, then maybe you should think twice about choosing OKCoin.

OKCoin Trading View

Different exchanges have different trading views. And there is no “this overview is the best”-view. You should yourself determine which trading view that suits you the best. What the views normally have in common is that they all show the order book or at least part of the order book, a price chart of the chosen cryptocurrency and order history. They normally also have buy and sell-boxes. Before you choose an exchange, try to have a look at the trading view so that you can ascertain that it feels right to you. The below is a picture of the trading view at OKCoin:

OKCoin Fees

OKCoin Trading fees

The one thing we can’t stress enough is that you must always ascertain the trading fees at any exchange you are interested in. Every trade occurs between two parties: the maker, whose order exists on the order book prior to the trade, and the taker, who places the order that matches (or “takes”) the maker’s order. Makers make the liquidity in a market and takers remove this liquidity by matching makers’ orders with their own.

OKCoin’s trading fees for takers are 0.20%. This fee is in line with industry average. The exchange also offers a discount to makers, who trade at a fee of 0.10%. This is especially beneficial for the investors not interested in picking up existing orders from the order book.

Both these fees are roughly in line with the existing industry averages.

OKCoin also offers lower trading fees for the users on the platform that trade a lot, as follows:

OKCoin Withdrawal fees

Also, OKCoin does not charge any withdrawal fees at all for withdrawing BTC. This is a strong competitive edge in the market and distinguishes OKCoin from most other top crypto exchanges.

Deposit Methods

OKCoin offers both wire transfers and credit cards as deposit methods. This makes OKCoin an “entry-level exchange” where new crypto investors can take their first steps into the thrilling crypto world.

OKCoin Security

The exchange has implemented technologies such as GSLB, distributed server clusters, distributed storage, and a high-speed memory-based trading engine all backed up in multiple machines, cold storage locations, and hot wallets with offline private keys. All of the foregoing are of course implemented to ensure maximum security.