OKX to Relaunch US Exchange With New App in Late 2024

OKX’s U.S.-based sister crypto exchange—once called OKCoin and rebranded to OKX in the likeness of its non-U.S. counterpart—is aiming to debut a new mobile application this fall as part of the exchange’s broader relaunch, OKX Chief Marketing Officer Haider Rafique told Decrypt in an interview on Thursday. 

The U.S.-based OKX’s existing mobile app, which is called OKCoin despite the trading platform’s rebranding to OKX last year, will be sunsetted at the time of the new app’s roll out in the U.S. The new app will “not be the OKCoin app rebranded,” Rafique told Decrypt. 

“It’s a brand new product,” he said.

OKCoin app users will be migrated to the new U.S. “OKX” app when it launches, according to Rafique. Some users, who have been notified of the upcoming migration via email, have already begun transferring their crypto in preparation for the migration, he added.

OKX, one of the largest crypto exchanges in the world by volume, expects to launch the new app for U.S. users in the next couple of months. The company is still working on onboarding “a few” U.S. banks ahead of launch, according to Rafique. The exchange has been in talks with a few banks, including one used by its competitor Kraken, he said.

The U.S.-based OKX exchange’s plan to onboard banking partners comes after the trading platform paused U.S. dollar deposits in early 2023, citing the collapse of Signature Bank. The bank was OKCoin’s primary USD bank for customer transactions. 

The team behind the new app is also aiming to launch it with automated clearing house (ACH) transfers, which some traders have had trouble with on the OKCoin app. ACH transfers, though typically slower than wire transfers, are generally more cost effective and provide other benefits for users.

“We don’t want to just launch with wire, we want to launch with ACH,” Rafique said. “[With] wire I don’t think people are gonna be really excited, and it’s also inconvenient.” 

The new OKX app will be available to users in 41 states, just like its predecessor app, OKCoin, Rafique told Decrypt. That’s because OKCoin’s licenses can be transferred to the OKX-branded trading platform for U.S. users, he said.

The launch of the new app under the OKX brand will also deepen the “consolidation” of the exchange and its non-U.S. counterpart, Rafique told Decrypt.