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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 (including some US states).

OKCoin used to be one of the three largest exchanges in China when crypto trading wasn’t banned there and it was once global leader in trading volume (although it has been accused of faking data). Since then a lot has changed an the large Bitcoin exchange has gained licenses that cover most parts of the world including many states in the US and Europe.

Citizens and residents of the United States are allowed to perform spot market trades at OkCoin but the US are still excluded from margin trading. Likely this will come at some point in the future, when the big Bitcoin exchange has acquired the respective licenses from the single US states.

People from/in Europe, Singapore or many other countries worldwide can trade on margin with up to 5x leverage (in spot market margin trades).

OkCoin doesn’t offer any derivatives like CFDs or Futures.

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

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:

Level 1: Personal Information

• Deposit and withdraw up to $2,000 for Fiat
• Deposit up to $2,000 for cryptocurrencies

Level 2: Photo Identification

• Deposit and withdraw up to $700,000 for Fiat
• Deposit and withdraw up to $700,000 for cryptocurrencies

Level 3: Address and Video Verification

• Unlimited deposits and withdrawals for fiat and cryptocurrencies

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 navigation bar leads to all markets on OkCoin, to the trading interface with spot and margin trading. Under “More” you find fees, guides, security information and faq. Users can also earn rewards by referring friends / professional traders. They deffer between a referral program and an affiliate program.

The trade menu gives access both to buying and selling BTC, LTC, ETH, BCH, ETC, XRP and a few other cryptocurrencies or crypto tokens.

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 usually no fee, but any commissions may be charged by some specific banks. Only USD is accepted on OKCoin.com international.

Deposit / Withdrawal Fees:

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 funding tab and send as much as you want to the respective address found there.

Trading Fees:

Makers are charged from -0.005% (rewarded) up to 0.10% depending on personal 30-day trading volume. Takers have to pay a maximum of 0.2% fee.

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.

OkCoin Order Types

The trading platform offers advanced order types such as:

• Limit order
• advanced limit order
• market order
• stop order
• trigger order
• trail order
• iceberg order
• TWAP

Altcoins cannot be paired together. Orders must be placed using a combination of one of the supported cryptocurrencies and USD. There are also a few crypto-EUR pairs.

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 maximum of 10x leverage for BTCUSD and ETHUSD. LTCUSD, BCHUSD and XRPUSD can be traded with 5x leverage. There is no leverage with all other trading pairs.

If you choose higher leverage than 3x, the system will already show a risk warning. A forced liquidation will take place If the margin balance falls below the respective threshold, depending on the used leverage, and any loans will be automatically repaid.

There are separate wallets for funding and trading, the latter is again divided in spot and margin trading accounts which keeps funds well organized and more save.

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 support section has dramatically improves since we’ve first reviewed OkCoin in 2017. The formerly quite ugly and visually confusing area is completely different today. The most frequent questions can be found in a well organized list linking to single pages which provide sound and easy to understand answers. If you have any question there are three main options: connect with them in one of the social media they use or simply use the live chat in the right bottom corner. Of course users can also just reach out by email to “support {at} okcoin.com”.