The History of OKX: How One of the Largest Exchanges Has Changed

OKX is one of the most popular, vibrant, and high-tech cryptocurrency exchanges on the market. To gain the trust of crypto enthusiasts and climb to the top of the rankings, the project had to go through a lot.

The BeInCrypto editorial team has gathered the main events in the history of OKX over the past few years in one review. We explain how and thanks to what the cryptocurrency exchange has acquired its modern outlines.

How OKX Has Changed

The cryptocurrency exchange was founded in 2013, which is a long time by crypto industry standards, by Chinese businessman Star Xu (Star Xu). Initially, it operated under the brand OKCoin, but in January 2022, after a rebranding, it adopted the well-known name OKX. With the new name, the exchange began operating in Turkey in May 2023.

Before changing its brand name, the company managed to attract tens of millions in investments, launch an international derivatives platform and a token launch platform called Jumpstart, as well as release its own token OKB, move from China, launch the first Proof-of-Reserve, and enter into partnership agreements with sports legends like Manchester City and McLaren F1.

The transformation of OKX and the speed of project development gained momentum in 2024 and 2025.

January 2024 — The subsidiary of OKX in Dubai received a VASP license from the VARA regulator.

March 2024 — The MAS in Singapore granted OKX preliminary approval for the MPI license.

April 2024 — OKX launched the ZK-EVM L2 X Layer mainnet, which saw the connection of over 200 dApps in the first month.

May 2024 — The exchange entered the Australian market, adding AUD deposits, spot trading, and derivatives.

January 2025 — OKX received its first MiCA license in the EU. An important step that confirms the high quality of the exchange's AML processes.

"Now more than 400 million Europeans will have access to regulated cryptocurrency products and services — the OKX exchange, a non-custodial wallet, and much more. Services will be provided through OKX's branch in the European Economic Area (EEA), located in Malta. This is a major event and a victory for OKX in the European cryptocurrency market, as well as a testament to the growth and mass adoption of the crypto industry," — this is how the CEO of OKX in Europe, Erald Goos commented on the news.

April 2025 — OKX relaunched its centralized exchange in the USA, opened a headquarters in San Jose, launched OKX Wallet, and announced a partnership with Standard Chartered.

May 2025 — The cryptocurrency exchange launched the payment service OKX Pay. The development has significantly simplified the process of cryptocurrency payments and enhanced the security of fund storage. More about OKX Pay was discussed in a separate review.

June 2025 — OKX updated the Russian-speaking community of the CIS. The cryptocurrency exchange team brought together tens of thousands of crypto enthusiasts under the roof of one project and provided them with access to educational materials, unique activities, as well as themed offline events. More details about the update of the Russian-speaking community of OKX were covered in a separate review.

This month, the exchange also conducted the 28th burning of the OKB token, destroying 42.44 million OKB (, about 20% of the circulation ). Additionally, in June, the management confirmed plans to consider the possibility of conducting an IPO in the USA after resolving the conflict with the Department of Justice. More details about the potential listing of the cryptocurrency exchange's shares were discussed here.

July 2025 — OKX has passed certification under the ISO/IEC 27001:2022 standard. The exchange has also partnered with Circle, enabling instant conversion of USD to USDC for 60 million clients. Additionally, the company has begun operations in Spain and France in accordance with MiCa requirements.

Interesting! At the time of writing the review, OKX serves around 60 million users in 190+ countries around the world.

What OKX Expects in the Future

The OKX team plans to continue its international expansion. The developers also intend to support the improvement of existing tools and work on new initiatives.

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