OVEX

OVEX Review

What is OVEX?

OVEX is a cryptocurrency exchange from South Africa that has been up and running since February 2019. OVEX is an institutional-grade cryptocurrency exchange that specializes in providing deep liquidity for the high-volume trader.

OVEX offers crypto-fiat and fiat-fiat liquidity in multiple jurisdictions. Users can easily ramp in and out of crypto in over 16 different currencies with immediate execution and instant settlement. 

Trading Volume

As far as liquidity and trading volume is concerned, OVEX was marked as an untracked listing on Coinmarkecap. CoinGecko had no information on the trading volumes for this exchange either. This is not a good sign and we recommend our readers to refrain from creating an account on this exchange.  

Security

OVEX ensures top-tier security with a layered custody solution that integrates offline cold storage with complex multi-signature and white-list only transfer processes. The platform minimizes risk concentration by using multiple segregated wallets. Sensitive custody components and operations are cryptographically verified, signed, and attested. Additionally, OVEX employs Fireblocks Multi-Party Computation (MPC) to enhance security by encrypting private keys across multiple parties.

OTC-desk

Let’s say that you hold a very large amount of a certain cryptocurrency. You want to sell that amount. Should you do that on a regular trading platform like everyone else? Maybe not. One of many reasons for executing large trades outside of the normal market place is that large trades may affect the market price of the relevant crypto. Another reason, which is connected to the foregoing, is that the order book might be too thin to execute the relevant trade. A solution to these problems is what we call OTC-trading (Over The Counter).

OVEX offers OTC-trading, which might be helpful to all the “whales” out there (and maybe also to all the “dolphins”). OVEX also highlights a number of advantages of their OTC-trading service: deep liquidity, 24/7 support, low fees, several supported assets, possibility to leverage trade and more.

OVEX Trading View

Every trading platform has a trading view. The trading view is the part of the exchange’s website where you can see the price chart of a certain cryptocurrency and what its current price is. There are normally also buy and sell boxes, where you can place orders concerning the relevant crypto, and, at most platforms, you will also be able to see the order history (i.e., previous transactions involving the relevant crypto). Everything in the same view on your desktop. There are of course also variations to what we have now described. This is the trading view at OVEX:

It is up to you – and only you – to decide if the above trading view is suitable for you. Finally, there are usually many different ways to change the settings to tailor the trading view after your very own preferences.

Supported Currencies

OVEX offers a broad range of cryptocurrencies, from the most popular, to some fairly niche tokens. The full list is as follows: 

OVEX Fees

OVEX Trading fees

Every time you place an order, the exchange charges you a trading fee. The trading fee is normally a percentage of the value of the trade order. Many exchanges divide between takers and makers. Takers are the one who “take” an existing order from the order book.

OVEX charges what we call flat fees, meaning that both the takers and the makers pay the same fee. In this case, that fee is 0.50%. These flat fees are substantially above the global industry averages for centralized exchanges. Sure, industry averages have historically been around 0.20-0.25% but we now see new industry averages emerging around 0.10%-0.15%. Here is a list of trading fees at OVEX.

OVEX Withdrawal fees

OVEX charges a withdrawal fee of 0.0004 BTC per BTC-withdrawal. This fee is below the global industry average, seeing as the current global industry average is around 0.0006 BTC per BTC-withdrawal.

Deposit Methods and US-investors

Deposit Methods

In addition to depositing cryptocurrency to the platform, OVEX also lets you deposit fiat currency. However, only through wire transfer (not credit or debit card). If you need an exchange also offer credit or debit card payments, please refer to our Exchange List and use our Exchange Filters to filter out suitable exchanges for you.

Seeing as fiat currency deposits are possible at this trading platform, OVEX qualifies as an “entry-level exchange”, making it an exchange where new crypto investors can start their journey into the exciting crypto world.

US-investors

Why do so many exchanges not allow US citizens to open accounts with them? The answer has only three letters. S, E and C (the Securities Exchange Commission). The reason the SEC is so scary is because the US does not allow foreign companies to solicit US investors, unless those foreign companies are also registered in the US (with the SEC). If foreign companies solicit US investors anyway, the SEC can sue them. There are many examples of when the SEC has sued crypto exchanges, one of which being when they sued EtherDelta for operating an unregistered exchange. Another example was when they sued Bitfinex and claimed that the stablecoin Tether (USDT) was misleading investors. It is very likely that more cases will follow.

It is unclear whether OVEX permits US investors or not. We have not been able to understand their Terms and Conditions. We urge any US investors to form their own opinion on the permissibility of their trading at OVEX though.