OKX (), formerly known as OKEx, is a
Seychelles
Seychelles (, ; ), officially the Republic of Seychelles (french: link=no, République des Seychelles; Creole: ''La Repiblik Sesel''), is an archipelagic state consisting of 115 islands in the Indian Ocean. Its capital and largest city, V ...
-based
cryptocurrency exchange
A cryptocurrency exchange, or a digital currency exchange (DCE), is a business that allows customers to trade cryptocurrencies or digital currencies for other assets, such as conventional fiat money or other digital currencies. Exchanges may acce ...
and
derivatives exchange
A futures exchange or futures market is a central financial exchange where people can trade standardized futures contracts defined by the exchange. Futures contracts are derivatives contracts to buy or sell specific quantities of a commodity or fi ...
. It was founded by Star Xu (徐明星) in 2017.
OKX is owned by OK Group, which also owns crypto exchange Okcoin. It is not currently available to US-based investors.
The company's CEO is Jay Hao and CMO is Haider Rafique.
Initially headquartered in
Beijing, China
}
Beijing ( ; ; ), alternatively romanized as Peking ( ), is the capital of the People's Republic of China. It is the center of power and development of the country. Beijing is the world's most populous national capital city, with over 21 ...
, OKX is now under a blanket ban by Chinese regulators. On October 13, 2021, it issued a "Notice on Regulatory Policy in Mainland China", announcing that it would continue its policy of "withdrawing from the Chinese mainland market" and would not establish an office or team in the region. However, according to
Caixin
Caixin Media () is a Chinese news website based in Beijing known for investigative journalism. Caixin means "New Fortune" in Chinese.
Structure
The founder and publisher is Hu Shuli, a former Knight Fellow in journalism at Stanford University ...
, although the exchange officially announced that it would no longer set up an office in
Mainland China
"Mainland China" is a geopolitical term defined as the territory governed by the People's Republic of China (including islands like Hainan or Chongming), excluding dependent territories of the PRC, and other territories within Greater China. ...
, it still has a large number of R&D staff working in the region, including engineers, who continue to work for OKX in the form of third-party outsourcing companies.
History
The company was launched by Star Xu in 2017 and is headquartered in
Seychelles
Seychelles (, ; ), officially the Republic of Seychelles (french: link=no, République des Seychelles; Creole: ''La Repiblik Sesel''), is an archipelagic state consisting of 115 islands in the Indian Ocean. Its capital and largest city, V ...
.
2018
On April 11, 2018, the company announced its expansion to
Malta
Malta ( , , ), officially the Republic of Malta ( mt, Repubblika ta' Malta ), is an island country in the Mediterranean Sea. It consists of an archipelago, between Italy and Libya, and is often considered a part of Southern Europe. It lies ...
, given the country's efforts to provide a sound regulatory framework for
blockchain
A blockchain is a type of distributed ledger technology (DLT) that consists of growing lists of records, called ''blocks'', that are securely linked together using cryptography. Each block contains a cryptographic hash of the previous block, a ...
businesses and digital asset exchanges.
In May 2018, OKX became the world's largest
cryptocurrency exchange
A cryptocurrency exchange, or a digital currency exchange (DCE), is a business that allows customers to trade cryptocurrencies or digital currencies for other assets, such as conventional fiat money or other digital currencies. Exchanges may acce ...
by reported turnover. It has been suspected, however, that a large proportion of the reported trading volume was faked.
[
In June 2018, the platform became one of the largest exchanges to launch and offer a cryptocurrency exchange white label service, where applicants must have solid industry experience and $2.5 million in their accounts.]
2019
In November 2019, the Hong Kong Securities & Futures Commission (SFC) announced new digital asset exchange rules. According to Reuters
Reuters ( ) is a news agency owned by Thomson Reuters Corporation. It employs around 2,500 journalists and 600 photojournalists in about 200 locations worldwide. Reuters is one of the largest news agencies in the world.
The agency was estab ...
, OKX said they do not expect to see many exchanges opting into the new regulations, but said the new rules are positive for the industry.
On November 19, 2019, the cryptocurrency exchange said that they previously opened their Indian Telegram group a year before opening their Indian operations.
On November 25, 2019, the company announced four major partners for its global utility token "OKB".
2021
According to Reuters, in February 2021 OKX saw its biggest trading volume in history, up 26% from the previous month to $188 billion.
In June 2021, Baidu
Baidu, Inc. ( ; , meaning "hundred times") is a Chinese multinational technology company specializing in Internet-related services and products and artificial intelligence (AI), headquartered in Beijing's Haidian District. It is one of the la ...
, Weibo Weibo may refer to:
* Microblogging in China, or China-based microblogging services (), including:
** NetEase Weibo (), launched by NetEase
** People's Weibo (), launched by ''People's Daily''
** Phoenix Weibo (), launched by Phoenix Television
** W ...
and other Chinese Internet platforms blocked keywords such as "OKEx", "Binance
Binance is a cryptocurrency exchange which is the largest exchange in the world in terms of daily trading volume of cryptocurrencies. It was founded in 2017 and is registered in the Cayman Islands.
Binance was founded by Changpeng Zhao, a deve ...
" and "Huobi
Huobi () is a Seychelles-based cryptocurrency exchange. Founded in China, the company now has offices in Hong Kong, South Korea, Japan and the United States. In August 2018 it became a publicly listed Hong Kong company.
Following a 2017 ban o ...
".
2022
In January 2022, OKEx rebranded to OKX.
In March 2022, OKX rejected calls to ban Russian crypto trading. In the same month, football team Manchester City F.C
Manchester City Football Club are an English football club based in Manchester that competes in the Premier League, the top flight of English football. Founded in 1880 as St. Mark's (West Gorton), they became Ardwick Association Football ...
announced a partnership with OKX as their official cryptocurrency partner. In May 2022, OKX signed a sponsorship deal with McLaren as a primary partner.
Criticism and controversies
On February 24, 2018, the Dongguan Public Security Bureau officially opened a criminal case against OKX for possible "illegal futures trading" or, more seriously, "fraud".
In March 2018, some major cryptocurrency exchanges were said to be charging up to one million dollars to have their tokens listed. In a response to Insider
''Insider'', previously named ''Business Insider'' (''BI''), is an American financial and business news website founded in 2007. Since 2015, a majority stake in ''Business Insider''s parent company Insider Inc. has been owned by the German publ ...
, a PR manager for OKX denied this, saying there are no listing fees for any tokens.
On March 10, 2018, Sylvain Ribes, a trader and investor, published an article titled ''Chasing fake volume: a crypto-plague,'' in which he concluded from an analysis of publicly available data that approximately 93% of trading volume on OKX was faked.
On July 30, 2018, a trader reportedly bought bitcoin futures with a $416 million notional value on margin, before being forced by the exchange to liquidate his position at a large loss. The exchange injected 2,500 Bitcoins - worth about $18 million at current prices - into an insurance fund to help minimize the impact on clients. However, to cover for the outstanding amount, traders who had made an unrealized profit during the previous week still had to pay a clawback rate of 17 percent, the so-called "socialized clawback".
OKX has experienced several downtime incidents, the most serious of which occurred on September 5, 2018, in which the exchange suddenly experienced problems such as app flashbacks, inability to log into the platform, and inability to view contracts. Subsequently, many investors crowded Beijing, where the institution was headquartered at the time, to defend their rights. On the evening of the 10th of the same month, the founder of the exchange, Star Xu, was summoned by the Shanghai public security authorities to assist in the investigation of alleged digital currency fraud.
In October 2019, Star Xu and Yongxing Yang had a dispute. Yang broke the news to the media that several of his accounts on the OKX platform had been frozen and canceled for no reason, with assets worth a combined total of about 800 million RMB
The renminbi (; symbol: ¥; ISO code: CNY; abbreviation: RMB) is the official currency of the People's Republic of China and one of the world's most traded currencies, ranking as the fifth most traded currency in the world as of April 2022. ...
vanishing into thin air, and that a case against OKX and Star Xu by him and other investors had been officially filed in the Hangzhou Internet Court
Hangzhou Internet Court is a court of special jurisdiction in China.
The court was established on August 18, 2017, based on Hangzhou Railway Transport Court. It hears Internet-related cases like contract disputes involving online shopping, servi ...
.
On October 16, 2020 OKX temporarily suspended withdrawals following its founder's alleged arrest.[Olga Kharif.] On November 19, 2020 OKX announced that withdrawals would reopen and will resume on or before November 27.
See also
* List of cryptocurrency exchanges
* Cryptocurrency
A cryptocurrency, crypto-currency, or crypto is a digital currency designed to work as a medium of exchange through a computer network that is not reliant on any central authority, such as a government or bank, to uphold or maintain it. It i ...
* Blockchain
A blockchain is a type of distributed ledger technology (DLT) that consists of growing lists of records, called ''blocks'', that are securely linked together using cryptography. Each block contains a cryptographic hash of the previous block, a ...
* List of Bitcoin companies
This is a list of Wikipedia articles about for-profit companies with notable commercial activities related to bitcoin. Common services are cryptocurrency wallet providers, bitcoin exchanges, payment service providers and venture capital. Other ...
References
External links
Official website
{{Cryptocurrencies, state=expanded
Bitcoin exchanges
Digital currency exchanges
Internet properties established in 2017