OKX is the third-largest cryptocurrency exchange by trading volume, founded in 2017 by Star Xu and processing roughly $40 billion in daily derivatives turnover across one of the deepest perpetuals order books in the market.

Perpetual swaps run up to 100x leverage in USDT, USDC, and coin-margined variants, backed by a unified account that margins spot, futures, and options from one collateral pool. OKX was also the first global exchange to list perpetuals priced on licensed ICE Brent and WTI oil benchmarks, extending its engine beyond crypto.

Its regulatory footprint is among the broadest in the industry. A MiCA license from Malta's MFSA passports across the EEA alongside a MiFID II derivatives venue, approvals include VARA, MAS, and AUSTRAC, and a compliant US entity relaunched from San Jose after settling with the Department of Justice.

Custody claims are verifiable rather than asserted. More than 40 consecutive monthly Proof of Reserves reports use zk-STARK cryptography to show over $20 billion in primary assets covered above a 1:1 ratio, and the main exchange has no major disclosed hack in its history.

BingX is a copy-trading-first perpetuals exchange founded in 2018 by Josh Lu, serving more than 10 million users across 160+ countries with one of the widest traditional-asset derivatives lineups of any mid-tier venue.

Its futures platform spans USDT and USDC-margined crypto perpetuals at up to 125x leverage plus 50+ TradFi contracts covering gold, oil, forex, US stocks, and indices, reaching 500x on select forex pairs.

Regulation runs through AUSTRAC registration in Australia and Lithuania's FCIS, while BingX EU has applied for MiCA authorization through Austria's FMA, so EEA access remains unauthorized pending that decision.

Security carries one scar handled cleanly. A September 2024 hot wallet breach cost between $43 million and $52 million, users were fully compensated from reserves within days, and the exchange publishes Proof of Reserves alongside an expanded Shield Fund since.