Crypto platform OKEx rebrands to OKX to show it's way more than just an exchange

Crypto platform OKEx has rebranded to OKX, a move by the Seychelles-based company meant to highlight that it’s a lot more than a crypto exchange.

“We are building so much more than a centralized exchange. It is time for us to evolve our brand to reflect what we stand for and what we are building toward,” OKX said in its announcement.

The company’s other projects include MetaX, a multi-chain self-custody wallet; an NFT marketplace; OEC, a decentralised blockchain that offers about 1,000 transactions a second; and a growing suite of digital investment products such as OKX Earn, a tool for passive crypto income that paid out $314 million on $5.1 billion in deposits last year.

OKX said it was different from other centralised exchanges in that it was moving to decrease the company’s involvement in user activity, with a goal of shedding intermediation completely.

“OKX is moving beyond the standard centralized exchange model to give our customers an end-to-end cryptocurrency experience,” said chief executive Jay Hao.

“Most importantly, we’re doing this while upholding the core principles of crypto — decentralization and autonomy.

“Our goal is to give customers the tools they need to easily and securely earn, transfer, and spend their wealth as they see fit, without intermediation from us.

“We’ve dropped the ‘E’ from our name because we’re so much more than an exchange, just like crypto is so much more than a speculative asset.”

New year, new us.

To continue our commitment to the advancement of the #crypto industry and #Web3, we’ve rebranded to #OKX.

Join us at the world’s leading crypto ecosystem.

Read more about our rebrand here ⤵️https://t.co/SQPNR1Ieyk pic.twitter.com/WYJqjS70lt

— OKX (previously OKEx) (@okx) January 18, 2022

No. 2 spot claimed

OKX says it has 20 million users in 180 countries around the world, and claims it has long been the No. 1 exchange for crypto futures.

It said it moved into the No. 2 position in the last quarter of 2021 in spot trading volume, surpassing Coinbase and Crypto.com, following a 700 per cent rise in volume over the course of the year.

(Such claims are hard to independently verify, but Coinranking.com on Wednesday was indeed putting OKX in the No. 2 spot, with US$4.53 billion in 24-hour trading volume, behind Binance at $13.91 billion).