OKCoin Heats Up Competition for Large Crypto Traders

Cryptocurrency exchange OKCoin has announced the launch of OKCoin Premier, a special service aimed at large players to “enhance their access to OKCoin’s global liquidity pools.”

To qualify for this service, a trader must have more than USD 100,000 in crypto traded over the past 30 days. However, the company clarifies that this is not an OTC (over-the-counter) trading service, but only a special offer for their largest customers.

OKCoin, which is ranked 86th by trading volume, offers both fiat-to-crypto and crypto-to-crypto trading with a total of 52 pairings, where the top 5 are all fiat-to-crypto: popular cryptocurrencies paired against the US dollar. Now, large customers will be getting additional services compared to smaller traders, such as a dedicated account manager, priority API, faster withdrawals and deposits, invitations to “exclusive industry events” etc.

“We’ve been serving high-volume traders for the last five years and we deeply understand their requirements,” said Jason Lau, COO of OKCoin, for the press release, adding that the new service is aimed at high-volume traders, crypto businesses, or financial institutions.

As for how many users there are that qualify for this service, Jim Nguyen, VP Product and Marketing, declined to give an estimate, saying, “A meaningful number of OKCoin traders are presently and will continue to benefit from the Premier program, though given the trading requirements, this number will likely fluctuate with the general market.”

The perks that come with OKCoin Premier might well draw large players to them and incentivize them to trade more, but all the trading is done on the exchange instead of over-the-counter.

Other major exchanges usually opt for opening OTC desks in an attempt to cater to their largest customers. For example, cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase has opened their own OTC desk, available for users of Coinbase Prime – that is, financial institutions looking to trade with business funds.

However, OKCoin is far from the only one offering perks to their large customers, with or without an OTC desk. For example, although cryptocurrency exchange Bittrex has an OTC desk, they also have perks for corporate customers which include no withdrawal limits, faster deposits, priority support, etc. Binance and Poloniex also have institutional accounts along with their OTC desks.

OKCoin’s service differs in that they do not offer OKCoin Premier only to corporate customers: “The only requirement for inclusion is USD 100,000 USD in the last 30 days,” according to Nguyen.

OKCoin and OKEx, the major crypto-to-crypto exchange, both are part of OKGroup, which holds companies that are focused on blockchain.

At the time of writing, the 24-hour trading volume at OKCoin stood at more than USD 13 million, according to Coinmarketcap.com.

Top markets at OKCoin: