1 Level
17 Review
19 Karma
Review on OKEx by Celil Ozturk
OKEX has a comparatively high standard among cryptocurrency exchanges for…
OKEX has a comparatively high standard among cryptocurrency exchanges for exactly who can participate.
OKEX is not currently available for citizens of Hong Kong, Cuba, North Korea, Iran, Crimea, Sudan, Malaysia, Syria, the USA and its territories, Bangladesh, Ecuador, Bolivia, and Kyrgyzstan.
These countries are either on the United Nations Security Council Sanctions List or its citizens are restricted or prohibited from trading platforms in some way.
In the case of the United States, cryptocurrencies still very much occupy a legal gray area. The issue hinges on whether cryptocurrencies can be classified as securities, and it has largely been decided on a case-by-case basis. Exchanges that offer multiple coins – that is, all of them – are thus in danger of running afoul of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission if they don’t take steps to prevent U.S. citizens from operating on their exchanges.
This echoes the decision by some token developers to exclude U.S. citizens from initial coin offerings, for fear that their token might later be deemed a security and thus an illegal securities sale was held.
The regulatory waters are murky on this point and are likely to remain so for some time. OKEx’s decision to outright exclude the U.S. and countries with questionable legal status before the United Nations is more conservative than the decisions made by other, comparable exchanges. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, as we’ll discuss in our conclusion.
Assuming you are in an OKEx-approved country, the first step in trading on the platform is account creation.
The initial sign-in screen is straightforward. OKEx reminds you once again about its list of prohibited countries and then prompts you for either an email address or a telephone number for your username. A login password is also created at this time and you must check your email for a code to enter into the signup form within 60 seconds to continue.
Pros
- In the wide world of digital cryptocurrency exchanges, OKEx offers a comparatively wide range of trading pairs and the ability to trade directly to and from fiat currency. OKE is also taking steps to develop the cryptocurrency derivatives market by offering futures. Access to the exchange is limited, however, by its stringent user guidelines.
Cons
- OKEx is the offspring of exchange OKCoin, the brainchild of investor Star Xu. OKEx is to OKCoin as Coinbase is to GDAX – both exchange sets cater to different groups of investors. Both OKEx and GDAX are geared toward more professional cryptocurrency traders.
