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Exchanges

OKX

Best for the most frequent reserve proofs under an EU licence

EU status:MiCA CASP authorised (MFSA Malta, January 2025)Proof of reserves:Monthly, zk-STARK verificationPoR history:45th consecutive monthly publication reportedIndependent trust score:10 — rank 4Rubric:v2.0 · verified 9 Aug 2026
Last verified August 9, 2026
Confidence ARubric v2.0Verified August 9, 2026
8.5
out of 10
Open account
Scorecard

How it rates

Counterparty & custody risk · 35%10.0
Cost transparency · 20%4.0
Market quality · 20%9.0
Transparency & track record · 15%9.0
Public documentation surface · 10%10.0
Pros
  • Monthly reserve proofs — the most frequent cadence here
  • Zero-knowledge verification rather than an aggregate attestation
  • MiCA authorisation covering nine of ten licensable services
Cons
  • Public fee page does not display rates
  • A Maltese AML penalty accompanied the licensing process
  • Year established not published in the independent dataset
How this score was built

Each indicator scores 2, 1 or 0. A pillar is the points earned over the points available; the overall score is the weighted sum. Every source below is public — check any of them yourself.

Counterparty & custody risk · 35% weight10/10 points · 10.0/10
Cost transparency · 20% weight4/10 points · 4.0/10
  • Met
    Fee page at a documented public URL

    Reachable without an account.

    www.okx.com/fees
  • Not met
    Entry-tier maker and taker rates displayed

    Page describes tiering; rates not displayed at this check.

    www.okx.com/fees
  • Not met
    Volume tiers with thresholds displayed

    Tiering mentioned without thresholds at this check.

    www.okx.com/fees
  • Not met
    Deposit and withdrawal costs addressed

    Not shown at this check.

    www.okx.com/fees
  • Met
    Fee documentation readable without an account

    Page retrieved at this check.

    www.okx.com/fees
Market quality · 20% weight9/10 points · 9.0/10
Transparency & track record · 15% weight9/10 points · 9.0/10
Public documentation surface · 10% weight10/10 points · 10.0/10

OKX runs the most frequent reserve programme in this group — monthly, verified with zero-knowledge proofs — and holds a MiCA authorisation from the Malta Financial Services Authority. Its public fee page describes volume tiering without displaying rates, which is the one place it falls behind a group that otherwise publishes numbers.

Our assessment

OKX runs the most frequent reserve programme in this comparison — monthly rather than quarterly — and verifies it with zero-knowledge proofs rather than a plain Merkle tree. It holds a MiCA authorisation from the Malta Financial Services Authority covering nine of the ten licensable services. Its weak point is unusual for a venue this size: the public fee page does not show rates.

Monthly proofs, zero-knowledge verification

Public reporting puts the run at 45 consecutive monthly publications. The zero-knowledge construction lets a customer confirm their balance is inside the attested total without exposing anyone else's position — the same guarantee a Merkle proof gives, with better privacy properties. On cadence and method this is the strongest reserve programme in the table.

A settled European position

OKX Europe holds its MiCA licence from the MFSA, granted in January 2025, covering custody, execution and exchange among other services. The same licensing process was accompanied by a Maltese AML penalty, which belongs in the record alongside the authorisation rather than being quietly omitted — our transparency pillar records both.

Where the disclosure stops

The public fees page describes volume tiering but did not display actual rates when we checked, so a prospective user cannot compare cost before opening an account. Three of our five cost indicators score zero as a result. That is a genuine gap rather than a technicality: cost transparency is 20% of the score in this category precisely because comparing fees is the most common reason a reader visits a page like this one.

Who it suits

OKX fits readers who weight reserve verification and EU authorisation heavily and are prepared to check pricing inside the platform rather than before signing up. Anyone whose decision turns on comparing fee schedules will find Binance and Kraken publish theirs in full.

Alternatives

How rivals compare

ServiceScoreBest for
Binance9.7lowest published spot fees, outside the EURead →
Kraken9.7verifiable reserves and EU authorisationRead →
Reference

Frequently asked

How often does OKX publish proof of reserves?

Monthly, using zero-knowledge proofs that allow a customer to verify inclusion without revealing other users' data.

Is OKX authorised in the European Union?

OKX Europe holds a MiCA authorisation from the Malta Financial Services Authority granted in January 2025, covering nine of the ten licensable services.

What are OKX's trading fees?

The public fees page describes volume tiering but did not display rates at our check, so we do not quote a figure. Check the platform directly before trading.