OKCoin.com Review 2021 – Scam or Not?

OKCoin is a largest Bitcoin exchange in the world with a volume of over 16 million Bitcoins per month.

Review Contents

The exchange was founded by its CEO Star Xu in 2013, and it’s based in Beijing, China. Star Xu is a very experienced technology executive with an extensive professional experience. He worked at major companies such as Yahoo and Alibaba as search algorithm engineer and served as a Chief Technical Officer at Docln.com – a popular file sharing website – where he was in charge for 120 IT engineers.

okcoin

Currently, OKCoin is focused on the Chinese market, but the company stated that they plan overseas expansion.

Verification

The verification process is in accordance with standard practices in the industry, and the exchange successfully launched an international website where anyone can successfully complete the verification process (earlier it was quite difficult for non-Chinese residents).

There are two levels of verification on OKCoin. With a newly created account, the user can’t make deposits or withdrawals, and it needs to go through the verification process.

Level 1 verification requires the following personal information:

  • Name
  • Nationality
  • Birth date
  • Passport or ID number
  • Address

This level of verification allows deposits up to 2000 US dollars per day, but withdrawals are not allowed.

Level 2 verification is needed for withdrawals, and it requires the usual:

  • A photo of Passport or ID card
  • A proof of residence which can be utility bill or bank statement

When completed Level 2 provides 50,000 US dollar limit on daily deposits and withdrawals for personal accounts and 500,000 US dollars limit for corporate accounts.

The exchange supports only two FIAT currencies – US dollar (USD) and Chinese Yuan (CNY). There’s the same number of supported digital currencies – only Bitcoin (BTC) and Litecoin (LTC) are available for trading.

There are also special VIP levels, which are determined by the number of collected reward points. The reward points are earned through trading and completing KYC requirements. The VIP levels are used to determine the level of user fees, trading leverage and limits for borrowing. The number of required points for VIP levels:

  • Basic User – < 8,888 points
  • VIP 1 – > 88,888 points
  • VIP 2 – > 88,888 points
  • VIP 3 – > 288,888 points
  • VIP 4 – > 588,888 points
  • VIP 5 – > 888,888 points
  • Gold Account – Additionally paid upgrade from VIP 5 level.


okcoin-trading

OKCoin’s Fees

One of the reasons for OKCoin’s success is their fee schedule. The fees are very low in the International market and unmatched in the Chinese market.

Trading fees are based on a sliding scale like many others, and it refers to the monthly volume. Maker fees are set to zero, while taker fees drop as the trading volume increases.

According to the monthly volume, taker fees are:

  • 0 to 50 BTC – 0.20 percent
  • 50 to 200 BTC – 0.18 percent
  • 200 to 600 BTC – 0.16 percent
  • 600 to 1500 BTC – 0.14 percent
  • 1500 to 5000 BTC – 0.12 percent
  • Over 5000 BTC – 0.10 percent

When it comes to futures trading, the open position is charged 0.03 percent, while closed position is free of charge.

The borrowing limits are:

  • US dollar – 500,000 USD
  • Bitcoin – 1000 BTC
  • Litecoin – 25,000 LTC

With the standard account leverage of 3x. BTC Futures, as well as LTC Futures, have an account leverage of 10/20x.

Deposit and Withdrawal Fees

US dollar is the only accepted currency for deposits, and the only two ways to deposit them are Bank and Wire Transfer. The transfer is free for corporate users, while individual users are charged with a 0.1 percent of the amount transferred. Bank fees are not included in the fee.

Withdrawals in US dollars are also possible via Bank or Wire Transfer with 0.1 percent fee and a minimum of 15 US dollars. Bitcoin and Litecoin withdrawals are free of charge.

Trading at OKCoin

The OKCoin is one of the most liquid, stable and advanced platforms today. Top of the line exchange, especially for professional traders. The company offers a lot of advanced order types, including Iceberg orders, trailing stop orders and TWAPs.

Short selling and margin trading are available and easily accessible by clicking on the button “borrow.” Depending on the VIP level, users can get 2 to 3x leverage, with a span for loans from 5 to 360 days.

OKCoin is the first exchange to offer futures trading in BTC/USD pair and still has the largest liquidity.

okcoin-chart

Ease of Use

The website looks great and is very well adjusted for the professional traders. By clicking on the “full screen” button a sophisticated chart is launched, with many features and an integrated trading book. Numerous types of tools for technical analysis are available for both spot and future trades.

Everything runs very smoothly, and the website is very responsive. There are also apps for Android and iOS, with full features, including futures trading. Mobile apps can be downloaded here:

Support

The exchange offers email, chat and direct phone support in addition to the ticketing system. The support team is highly skilled and very professional, typically answering within an hour.

okcoin-futures

User experience

Before launching an international website, many non-Chinese users had problems with verification. There are a lot of complaints from that period about the exchange refusing the documents from International users without explanation and preventing them from withdrawing their funds.

There were also a lot of comments related to the scandal from March of 2015 when many high-level executives left the company, following the changes in the company strategy from Mr. Xu. The exchange was later accused of inflating trading volumes artificially, in order to look like the biggest exchange in the BTC market.

Other comments are related primarily to futures trading, as many newbies complained about the “frozen” funds not knowing that’s a normal practice.

Security

The exchange offers two-factor authentication and admin password feature which allows setting the frequency at which the trading requests the password.

OKCoin holds 105 percent of the user funds in cold storage and has a hot wallet which always provides enough liquidity. In the case of a hot wallet breach, there is no doubt that the trading platform would easily absorb the hit.

There are also email and SMS notifications, and the exchange uses PGP encryption in all email correspondence.

Until now, OKCoin wasn’t hacked, but they suffered a DDoS attacks in the past.

Supported Payment Methods

  • Wire Transfer
  • Epay
  • PrimeX
  • Silvergate
  • Credit Card
  • Debit Card

Supported Countries

All countries except:

  • Cuba
  • Iran
  • North Korea
  • Crimea
  • Sudan
  • Syria
  • Malaysia
  • Bangladesh
  • Bolivia
  • Ecuador
  • Kyrgyzstan

OKCoin Review Conclusion

OKCoin is a serious trading company with a product that is pushing the Bitcoin market forward.

Pros

  • Superb liquidity, often the best in the world
  • Many advanced trading options
  • Low fees

Cons

  • Artificially inflated BTC volume
  • Sometimes foreign traders have problems with verification

All in all, an excellent exchange, especially for Asian users.

Go to OKCoin.com
Share your Experiences about OKCoin.com:

16 User-Reviews for OKCoin.com
  1. Brandon, 27. December 2022

    Scamers never used okcoin. scam your money and never left windraw your money asking for id. You can send it and not unlock

  2. Karel Wagenknecht, 2. September 2021

    OKCOIN IS A SCAM!
    I submitted all of my info, multiple ID’s face etc. A bit later I was told there is a problem validating my account. I then submitted various forms, photos, videos etc. to validate, to which I never heard back. Finally, I was validated to level L2 – but my account still says “Withdrawal suspended. Please contact customer support for help”. They have simply taken my money and won’t respond.
    Terrible customer service, no direct line.
    I am afraid that they have literally stolen my money.

  3. Lou Tompkins, 6. August 2021

    Scam they stole my $600 deposit with bs excuses. They are very dishonest and their software sucks.

  4. Christopher Dupuis, 29. May 2021

    I HAVE AN ONGOING CASE WITH THEIR ALMOST”NON-EXISTENT CUSTOMER SERVICE”. IT WILL BE 6 WEEKS THAT I’VE BEEN WAITING TO STACK/STAKE MY STX. THEY HAD ME SUBMIT ALL TRANSACTION AND VALIDATION NUMBERS AND MAKE A VIDEO. I’VE SENT ALL THE INFORMATION TWICE AND THEY JUST SENT ANOTHER REQUEST FOR THE VERY SAME INFORMATION. I HAVE NO EXPERIENCE WITH THE APP ITSELF AS I HAVEN’T MADE IT PAST STEP 1. HOPE YOU DON’T EVER NEED CUSTOMER SUPPORT.

  5. Sabah, 23. May 2021

    Be careful!! Your money will disappear with OKCoin
    I transferred 700 pounds from my account to the OKex platform through the OKCoin broker, where I answered all the required questions in addition to uploading all the required documents to the platform. They took the money and did not transfer it to the OKex platform, and they did not return my money to me either, since six days ago I have been sending them more than 6 Message, but without any answer from them !!
    I my money and lost an opportunity to buy some digital currencies in an excellent time

  6. Ali Abdulla Ahmed, 21. May 2021

    I made withdrawal and its approved but still not reached to my account

  7. Davree, 12. April 2021

    Obviously you haven’t actually used this app. Whoever heard of a crypto exchange that won’t allow customers to sell or transfer partial shares? You order 1 share, they deliver .999, and when you try to sell it they say you can’g sell less than 1 share. Ridiculous scam DO NOT BELIEVE THESE 5 STAR REVIEWS.

  8. CK, 10. March 2021

    I submitted all of my info, multiple ID’s face etc.
    Wired $2300 USD to my account, waited and them money never arrived. A day later I was told there is a problem validating my account. I then submitted various forms to validate to which I never heard back. They have simply taken my money and won’t respond.
    Terrible customer service, no direct line.
    I’m beginning to worry that they have literally stolen my money.

  9. OM, 8. February 2021

    Horrible experience. I’ve been locked out of my account for 3 days now. I e-mailed customer service multiple times and got zero response. I approached their admins on Telegram and someone right there in okcoin official chat was attempting to scam me for 0.02 BTC to unlock my account. Okcoin telegram admins keep sending me to the customer service, which is not responding. There is no phone number to call in the USA. I tried calling Canadian 24/7 customer service support, but there is a robot answering that no agents available to assist and hands up on me(tried several times with the same outcome). So after using Okcoin for just a week and transferring them $5K I am unable to access my account, my BTC and no one available to address the issue. I will continue battling the situation, but I would discourage others to use this dishonest platform with shady practices and absolutely zero customer support.

  10. Nahuel Vazquez, 16. October 2020

    Made a deposit using a wire transfer and it never got credited. I contacted support over the period of 1 month and provided the wire transfer trace numbers. They finally told me they could not credit the funds because the transfer dindn’t arrive. Terrible customer service. Stay away!! I lost my money.

  11. Werner Koch, 8. November 2019

    Okcoin are scammers. i sent there 8000euro and i cant see it on my acc. they told that i have to make 3 lvl verification. i made it but they told that will send me email in 1 week. i asked to sent money back to my bank acc but they blocked me in online chat. no i dont know what i have to do.

    OKCOIN IS SCAMM !

  12. Nick, 21. July 2019

    Okcoin is a Scam!, do not use their services. They will claim that there are problems with logins with your account and claim you require to verify your account in order to access it. I have had my money taken by this company and a year later i’m still not able to access my account, and they have just ignored me and failed to do anything about it!

  13. francesco, 28. November 2017

    SCAM SITE!!!! be AWARE they put all my position in forcedliquidation for ERROR of system and taking more then 30 days for check

  14. Alexander Petrov, 12. November 2017

    Afraid SCAM factor > 0. Two months ago okcoin.com was hacked, for several clients were stolen bitcoins (see on reddit “OKCoin stole my money…”). Support does not confirm the vulnerability on the side of the exchange, although all points to it. They respond to requests for a long time. Two weeks ago, they offered to compensate 60% me of the stolen property (~9.2 BTC), and now they are wasting time. They also hide any techical details about how account were hacked.

  15. kelvin, 19. October 2017

    okcoin is a scam!! lately they blocked all withdrawals before the shutdown to run away with all users funds. get your money out of there as fast as you can !!

  16. Richard, 19. May 2017

    Terrible customer service, awkward verifying process – no possibility to delete account. Never again!