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OkCoin.com Review – Pros and Cons of Trading on OKCoin

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OKCoin was founded in 2013 by Chinese businessman Start Xu. The exchange complies with the laws of the People’s Republic of China and has two main branches: one for serving local customers based in the capital, Beijing, and a second for international users whose headquarters are in Hong Kong.

Citizens residing in the Mainland are not permitted to use the international version of the platform, anyone breaking this rule acknowledges whatever legal punishment that could apply. Outside China, OKCoin.com international is available worldwide with exception of 25 territories (notably the USA).

OKCoin is one of the three largest exchanges in China and was once global leader in trading volume (although it has been accused of faking data). To the date, its 24h volume is estimated in 25000 BTC.

How to Trade Bitcoin on OKCoin

We will present below the site interface, the supported order types, pairs available for trading and everything you need to get started with the site:

Sign up at OKCoin.com

anonymous accounts:

As there are no demo or anonymous accounts, registering is required in order to use the platform. You can still sign up with a temporary email address thanks to the site not blacklisting any providers; if you will do so you must be careful as you will probably have money stored in your account.

Creating an account:

Signing up is quite easy, you can either register with a mobile number or an email. After filling the registration form you just have to verify your account. The system will prompt for identity verification, but you can skip the process and do it later.

Verifying your account is recommended if you want to fully take advantage of the site features. At least level 1 verification must be completed in order to be able to deposit and withdraw cryptocurrencies. The limits per level of verification are as follows:

Getting verified at level 1 is as easy as confirming your email and basic information. To be approved for level 2 you need to provide more detailed information about yourself, verify your phone and send them a picture of your passport and any valid ID.

How to navigate:

The easiest way to move through the site is using the navigation bar. There are five sections and a link to the home. “Products” will open a submenu with links to download the app, the newsboard and OKCoin’s blockexplorer.

The trade menu gives access both to buying and selling BTC, LTC and ETH but also has a link to access Okex, a site affiliated to OKCoin which allows to trade futures.

How to make a deposit/withdrawal:

Assuming you have the necessary level for the type of deposit you want, you can use either Bitcoin, LItecoin, Ethereum or fiat. Deposits in cryptocurrencies have no limits and incur in no fees. Deposits in fiat are available through wire transfers and have a 0.1% fee plus any commissions charged by the bank.

Only USD is accepted on OKCoin.com international while no other currency but CNY may be used in the local site. Makers are charged no fees, and takers a maximum 0.2% fee depending on the personal 30-day volume.

OKCoin’s fee structure.

Deposits are found under the account tab, which also englobes withdrawals, transaction history and referral activity. The options enabled in this section will strongly depend on the verification level, as it was previously mentioned.

To deposit cryptocurrencies you just need to select the appropriate tab and send as much as you want to the address found there.

How to analyze the graphs

Candlestick charts are shown under the respective menu. The user has control over which currency to analyze, the time frame, the specific type of chart and some styling features.

in the same section there is a link to “compare” orders among exchanges, particularly useful for arbitrage enthusiasts.

How to place an order on OKCoin.com

Once your deposit has been received by the site and credited to your account, you will be able to open orders. Everything you need to place, manage and view orders is found under the Trade menu, located second in the main bar.

The following orders are available on the platform. Not every type of order is offered for all coins.

Altcoins cannot be paired together. Orders must be placed using a combination of one of the supported cryptocurrencies and fiat. The biggest market to the date is LTC/CNY, closely followed by BTC/CNY.

Placing an order is as simple as choosing the order type from a dropdown menu, fine tuning the relevant parameters and clicking buy or sell, depending on what you are trying to accomplish.

Where to check your orders and current position

Once placed, orders may be viewed, edited or cancelled at any time if they have not yet been filled. There is even a button to cancel all the orders for a given currency at once.

You can check both open and archived orders by choosing the relevant tab. Regardless of what you are browsing, the orders will be presented classified by their nature (i.e. the order type).

How to use the leverage section

OKCoin offers margin trading with a 3x leverage and a maximum of 500,000 USD, 1000 BTC and 25,000 LTC to borrow. The best available interest rate is offered to the trader in a 2-week loan which can be repaid before without issues. A forced liquidation will take place If the margin balance falls below 10% of the original, and any loans will be automatically repaid.

There is no separate wallet for margin trading, which is turned off by default but can be activated with a single click.

Critics of OKCoin

In the last few days an issue arose with a reddit user accusing the exchange to hinder his verification process and retain 97 BTC. The problem was finally sorted out, but the intervention of a high employee was required. It adds up to the recent troubles that have surrounded OKCoin, including the suspension of withdrawals for more than 3 months and its waiting for an administrative punishment the People’s Banks of China is expected to issue within the next days.

Further information

The FAQ is not exactly the best you can get, the formatting is ugly and it has not been updated in a long while (there is no mention to Ethereum, for example). If you have any question there are three main options: filling a form optionally attaching a picture and waiting a couple of hours to get an answer, reaching them via a phone call to +852 5808 5768 or using their live chat feature offered through Zendesk. Here is their support page with phone numbers for different countries.