Review: OKX Crypto Platform

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Deciding which crypto exchange to use can be a difficult task given the plethora of platforms competing for your business.

For those looking to get their first taste of crypto, the decision is likely to come down to which is the simplest crypto trading platform to use.

But as your crypto journey develops you may find yourself want access to more advanced trading features, such as derivatives and staking, and this is where OKX shines.

That’s not to say that OKX doesn’t offer a simple way to buy your first cryptocurrencies, such as Bitcoin (BTC) or Ethereum (ETH), but some may find the number of options on the platform bewildering.

Here, we take a look at what’s on offer from OKX, including the new Jumpstart platform which aims to rival Binance’s popular Launchpad.

The OKX exchange

If you’re wondering why the name sounds similar to OKEX exchange it’s because it’s one and the same.

OKEX, which launched back in 2016, has been rebranded to become OKX, which sits alongside its sibling OKCoin (more on this) later.

OKX is based in the Seychelles and has satellite offices around the globe. It has grown rapidly to become one of the world’s largest exchanges, with millions of users in more than 100 countries.

The platform, which describes itself as ‘an innovative cryptocurrency exchange with advanced financial services’ offers hundreds of tokens and trading pairs to choose from.

Signing up is a piece of cake and is a lot slicker than other platforms I’ve used.

To get started with a limited account, all you need to do is fill and few basic details and verify you identity for AML purposes.

If you want to increase your trading limits and unlock other features you’ll need to complete a further sign-up stage with photo verification.

OKX is also an official sponsor of Manchester City Football Club.

Buying cryptocurrency with OKX

Despite the advanced trading tools available at OKX, it actually offers a very straight forward way to buy crypto through an ‘express’ service.

This enables you to select a coin from a curated list and buy it directly in your native currency (for UK residents GBP) using a variety of payment methods, including VISA, bank transfer, ApplePay, GooglePay and MasterCard.

You can also explore buying coins through a P2P trading service, but this is slightly more complicated and best left alone if you’re new to the world of cryptocurrency.

Using the OKX exchange

Although there are several similarities with Binance, I personally find the OKX exchange easier to use and more intuitive.

Despite the high level of functionality, there are fewer menus to navigate, and the entire platform is more user friendly.

There’s also an excellent demo trading function which enables you to hone your skills before using real money to buy and sell crypto.

You can dive straight in to an advanced trading screen with all the functionality of the live platform allowing you to find your way around while placing buys and sells and utilising other features to maximise the profits or losses you would have made for real.

While in demo mode, you can choose from basic trading, such as spot and simple options, along with margin trading and trading bots.

Margin trading gives you access to margin, perpetual swaps, futures and options, while the trading bot allows you to deploy trading strategies designed to work in both bull and bear markets.

Funding your account is straight forward – you can either buy crypto directly or transfer coins from another wallet. I tried a small Litecoin transfer, and the process was seamless, with the coins arriving within minutes.

One issue I did have with the platform was a repeated bug where my account balance wouldn’t show until I’d refreshed the page a couple of times.

Advanced trading features

Many of the trading features offered by OKX are more suited to advanced or institutional investors.

These include:

• Margin trading
• Futures
• Options
• Perpetual swaps trading
• DeFi
• Lending
• Mining services

The OKX trading bot

One thing that OKX excels at is it’s tutorials, which offer step-by-step guides to using some of the more advanced features and products on offer.

One of these is a customisable trading bot which enables investors to automate a range of strategies, including spot grid and arbitrage.

Spot grid, for example, offers the potential to profit during periods when an asset is particularly volatile.

It can be set up manually using parameters that you choose, or you can select an automated AI strategy based on previous price movements.

Arbitrage order enables traders to lock in profits from price discrepancies between OKX trading instruments, such as the payments traders make to keep perpetual swap positions open.

You can access the trading bot by clicking on the ‘Trade’ tap and selecting the trading bot option.

Here you’ll find the different trading opportunities which you can then customise depending on your desired strategy.

I decided to test the spot grid bot by depositing 30.7 USDT (big spender, I know!) and selected an automated version of the bot using the arithmetic mode.

After two weeks of letting it run untouched my balance was 30.64 USDT. To put this in context, my experiment ran during a period of upheaval in the crypto markets with the whole Terra/Luna debacle so this may have impacted the result.

I’ll need to experiment with the settings further before I can draw a firm conclusion about how effective the bots are.

MetaX Wallet

OKX is investing heavily in Web 3.0, and as part of this it has launched the MetaX wallet.

Designed to be a single interoperable wallet for any Web 3.0 requirement, MetaX enables access to a huge range of DeFi and GameFi platforms without the need to switch apps.

These include Aave, Uniswap, Axie Infinity, a selection of DAOs

It also puts all your Non-Fungible Token (NFT) needs at your fingertips, enabling you to shop, trade or even create your own tokens and connect with other communities.

Can I use OKX in the United States?

No. For regulatory reasons OKX is not currently available to US residents. However, its sister crypto exchange, OKCoin can be used by American investors.

OKCoin is a slimmed down version of the full exchange and as such doesn’t offer as many coins, trading pairs or features as its bigger sibling. More on this later.

Is OKX exchange safe and secure?

The OKX exchange offers one of the safest platforms on the market, securing clients’ crypto in both hot and cold wallets.

According to the company, around 95% of funds are stored offline using a complex security protocol involving multiple sites and the need for multiple personnel to agree access to cold wallets.

Private keys are stored in bank vaults among other places and are always kept air gapped from the internet and USBs.

OKX is considered an extremely safe crypto platform to use, but for ultimate security you should always consider storing your crypto in a hardware wallet meaning you have complete control over your private keys.

What is the OKX Jumpstart program?

The OKX Jumpstart program is similar to Binance’s Launchpad, and offers a convenient way for investors to discover new crypto projects.

When a project is listed in Jumpstart users can stake OKB and receive tokens issues by the projects.

This differs to buying tokens in offerings in that it’s effectively liquidity mining as you get your staked assets back at the end of each campaign.

What is OKCoin?

OKCoin is part of the OKX ecosystem and offers a simpler exchange platform for buying and selling cryptocurrencies, which is also available to people living in the US.

The number of cryptos you can buy on this platform is limited, but it still offers a number of opportunities for staking your coins and earning a passive income on your holdings.

For those who want to delve a little deeper in to the world of crypto trading, OKCoin gives you access to a number of more advanced trading features.

Conclusion

OTX has a lot to offer and is a serious rival to other exchange giants, such as Binance.

While it has many of the same features, the entire platform is laid out more logically and is easier to use.

Once you familiarise yourself with the trading options available, OTX is breeze to navigate and should be accessible to even novice users.

The app is also strong, although I preferred using the desktop version.

If you’re looking for a crypto exchange to call home then you’d do well to consider OTX especially given is clear commitment to Web 3.0 innovation and the new opportunities this offers for investors.