How to read these grades: each is derived from published, checkable disclosures — proof-of-reserves attestations, public regulatory registers, disclosed insurance funds and the documented incident record — using the weighted rubric below. Where an exchange does not disclose something, we mark it unverified rather than assume it. These are not audits and not investment advice; they reflect what was published as of our last review.
OKX
OKX publishes monthly zk-STARK proof of reserves with an open-source verification tool and holds Dubai VARA and Malta MiCA authorisations, but its Seychelles operating entity pleaded guilty in the U.S. in February 2025 and paid over $504m.
BySafety DeskSenior Exchange Safety Editor
Our OKX review
OKX publishes the most reader-verifiable reserve proof in this corpus and discloses no loss cover at all. Those two facts pull in opposite directions, and a B is where they settle.
What checks out
Proof of reserves is monthly and uses zk-STARKs — the 44th report covered $22.65bn in primary reserve assets — with an open-source verification tool on GitHub so you can check your own balance against the published Merkle root yourself. That last part matters more than the headline number: almost every other venue asks you to trust a PDF, and this one hands you the means to test it. We found no confirmed major security incident.
Where the evidence stops
No insurance or safety fund is publicly disclosed beyond the reserve programme. That is a statement about what OKX tells you, not a finding that it is uninsured — but a fund nobody has described is a fund you cannot count on. The cold/hot storage split is likewise undisclosed and we could not confirm it from a primary source. On licensing, OKX holds Dubai VARA VASP licence VL/23/12/003 and an EU MiCA CASP authorisation through OKX Europe Limited, granted by the Malta MFSA on 27 January 2025. Against that, operating entity Aux Cayes FinTech Co. Ltd. pleaded guilty in U.S. federal court on 24 February 2025 to running an unlicensed money-transmitting business and paid over $504m.
How to read the grade
OKX is strongest exactly where most exchanges are weakest — you can verify the reserves rather than take them on faith. It is weakest where a reserve proof cannot help you: if funds are taken, nothing published says who absorbs the loss. Read the B as a venue that shows its balance sheet and not its safety net.
Grade breakdown
Every KripZen grade comes from the same five weighted checks. Here is how OKX scores on each.
- Proof of reservesWeight 30%
Monthly zk-STARK v2 proof of reserves — the 44th report covered $22.65bn in primary reserve assets — with an open-source verification tool on GitHub so users can check their own balances against the published Merkle root.
What this means → meets this factor - CustodyWeight 25%
Cold/hot storage split is not disclosed; we could not confirm it from a primary source.
What this means → partial or unverified - RegulationWeight 20%
Dubai VARA VASP licence VL/23/12/003 and an EU MiCA CASP authorisation via OKX Europe Limited (Malta MFSA, 27 January 2025); operating entity Aux Cayes FinTech Co. Ltd. pleaded guilty in U.S. federal court on 24 February 2025 to running an unlicensed money-transmitting business and paid over $504m.
What this means → partial or unverified - InsuranceWeight 15%
No insurance or safety fund is publicly disclosed beyond the proof-of-reserves programme. That is a statement about what OKX discloses, not a finding that it is uninsured — but an undisclosed fund is one a user cannot rely on.
does not meet this factor - Incident historyWeight 10%
No confirmed major security incident found in our research.
meets this factor