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Exchanges

OKX

OKX is among the world's largest cryptocurrency exchanges and since January 2025 has held one of the broadest MiCA licences in Europe, issued by the Maltese authority MFSA. In 2025 it closed its dispute with the US justice system over unlicensed operations with a mega-penalty.

Riccardo CuratoloBy Riccardo Curatolo 3 min read How we work
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What OKX is

Founded in 2017 (as OKEx, rebranded to OKX in 2022) by Chinese entrepreneur Star Xu, OKX is one of the world's largest cryptocurrency exchanges by volume. The same group had launched the Okcoin exchange in 2013, whose brand has been progressively replaced by OKX since October 2023. OKX offers spot, derivatives, earn products and one of the most widely used self-custody wallets, with hundreds of trading pairs for retail and institutional users. In recent years it has bet decisively on regulation: a European hub in Malta with a MiCA licence, regulated entry into the US market in 2025 after the agreement with the Department of Justice, licences in several Asian and Middle Eastern jurisdictions. Born in Hong Kong, the company today has a multinational structure, with its European hub in Malta (Verified: September 2026).

Regulation and licences

(Verified: September 2026)

  • MiCA: YES — OKX Europe Ltd has held CASP authorisation from the Maltese MFSA since 27 January 2025 (pre-authorisation on 22 January), among the first for a global exchange. It covers 9 of the 10 MiCA services and is passported across the 30 EEA countries; it appears in the ESMA register (Verified: October 2026). OKX can operate legally even after the expiry of the transitional regime (01/07/2026).
  • On 17 February 2026 OKX also obtained a payment institution licence in Malta, to broaden fiat ramps and related services in the EEA.
  • United States: in February 2025 the entity Aux Cayes FinTech Co. pleaded guilty to operating as an unlicensed money transmitter (2018-early 2024), paying around 505 million dollars in fines and forfeitures; the agreement provides for an external compliance consultant until February 2027. After the settlement, OKX began regulated operations in the US.

Security

There are no significant thefts from the wallets held in custody by the exchange. Two episodes should nonetheless be remembered. On 16 October 2020 the then OKEx suspended withdrawals while founder Xu Mingxing (Star Xu), according to Caixin, was cooperating with an investigation by the Chinese authorities. On 13 December 2023 the admin key of a now-retired contract of the OKX DEX aggregator was compromised: around 2.7 million dollars were taken from the wallets of users who had approved it (estimates by PeckShield and Hacken reported by rekt.news). OKX publishes monthly proof of reserves with on-chain verification. The most serious precedent is regulatory, not technical: the 2025 DOJ affair described above, closed with a penalty and strengthened compliance obligations — an element that anyone assessing the platform should know, alongside the licensing path taken since.

Headquarters and contacts

  • OKX Europe Limited, authorised by the Maltese MFSA as a crypto-asset service provider, is the company that serves customers in the European Economic Area (ESMA register, October 2026).
  • Official website: https://www.okx.com/

Alternatives

  • Kraken — full MiCA via Ireland (June 2025)
  • Bybit — MiCA via Austria (May 2025)

FAQ

Is OKX legal in the EU? Yes: it serves EEA clients through OKX Europe Ltd, CASP-authorised by the Maltese MFSA since January 2025, with passporting valid across the EU (Verified: October 2026).

What happened with the US justice system? In February 2025 the exchange's parent company settled with the DOJ for around 505 million dollars for serving US clients without a licence between 2018 and early 2024. The affair concerned the US market and was closed with the agreement and compliance obligations (Verified: September 2026).

Who leads OKX? Founder Star Xu is CEO; Hong Fang is President and Lennix Lai is Chief Commercial Officer. Jay Hao, CEO in the OKEx era and in OKX's early years, left the role in 2023 (Verified: September 2026).

Verified sources

TEAM MEMBERS

Lennix Lai
Chief Commercial Officer

Star Xu
Founder & CEO

    Hong Fang
    President

          
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