OKX review 2026: 0.35% or 0.10%, MFSA authorisation, and who it suits

A European OKX user pays 0.200% as maker and 0.350% as taker on spot. Anyone who opens an X-Perps account pays 0.0800% and 0.1000%. Both tables sit side by side on OKX's own EEA help page. OKX Europe Limited has been in the ESMA register with an authorisation from the Maltese regulator MFSA since 27 January 2025, for nine of the ten MiCA services and with a passport to 29 countries. This is the third part of our series, after BLOX and Finst, with the same questions: what does it cost, what does the authorisation cover, and who is it for.

What a purchase costs

Buy €100 with a market order and you are the taker, paying €0.35 without an X-Perps account. With that account, €0.10. For comparison: Finst charges 0.15% with no spread, so €0.15; BLOX 0.25% plus spread. OKX is therefore the cheapest of the three with an X-Perps account and the most expensive without one. To see that difference in detail, also on €1,000 and €10,000, read OKX fees 2026: do you pay 0.20% or 0.08%?.

The X-Perps account is free and commits you to nothing, but it is a derivatives account: it opens perpetual futures with leverage, a product with which you can lose more than your deposit. You buy the spot discount with access to something you may not want. That is the trade-off, and we do not make it for you.

What the authorisation covers

In the ESMA register (as of 21 August 2026), OKX Europe Limited, based in Malta, holds an authorisation from the Malta Financial Services Authority since 27 January 2025. It covers nine services: custody and administration, operating a trading platform, exchanging crypto for funds and for other crypto, order execution, placing, reception and transmission of orders, portfolio management, and transfer services. What is not in it: advice. The passport covers 29 countries. The full line, with LEI, is on our MiCA page.

One thing sits outside that authorisation, and it is exactly the product the discount is tied to: derivatives and futures fall outside MiCA. X-Perps run under a different regime with different protections. If you only buy and hold spot, you stay within the MiCA authorisation; if you trade X-Perps, you partly step out of it.

Who OKX suits

OKX is a full trading platform: order book, limit orders, spot, futures, options, a Web3 wallet and copy trading, all equally prominent. If you trade regularly, place limit orders and want a low fee, there is more here than in an app that only buys and holds. For that user the X-Perps account is a logical step, with the caveat above.

If you buy €100 of bitcoin once a month and want nothing else, you pay more without X-Perps than at Finst and get an interface that is mostly noise. For that user a simpler provider is the better choice; our comparison puts them side by side.

Conditions to get started

An EU resident aged 18 or over with a valid ID document. Since the MiCA transition, a European trades with the Maltese entity, not with OKX global; that is why the fees on the global site are not about you. How the move to the European entity worked is in Switching to OKX safely.

Offer via Cryptocode

At the time of writing OKX is running a tiered promotion for new users, "Trade more, earn more", up to €400: €5 for a first trade of at least €1, then five deposit-and-volume tiers rising to €400 for €80,000 deposited and €600,000 traded. The first tier is within anyone's reach; the highest are not realistic for most private users. As of 7 September 2026 OKX gives no end date. Our OKX promotion page lists all six tiers, the terms and the check date. Cryptocode receives a fee if you open an account through that link; it does not change what you pay.

Frequently asked questions

Is OKX trustworthy? OKX Europe Limited has been in the ESMA register with an MFSA authorisation since 27 January 2025 and is therefore under MiCA supervision for spot, custody and transfers. Derivatives fall outside that. An authorisation says nothing about the price of what you buy.

What does OKX charge per transaction? On spot 0.20% maker and 0.35% taker; with an X-Perps account 0.08% and 0.10%. Source: OKX's EEA comparison page, checked 7 September 2026.

Do I have to open an X-Perps account for the discount? Yes, OKX explicitly ties the lower spot fee to that account. It is free, but it gives access to leveraged products.

Is OKX cheaper than Finst? With an X-Perps account yes (0.10% versus 0.15%), without one no (0.35% versus 0.15%).

Sources

• OKX Europe, "Spot fees comparison: X-Perps account vs Regular account", published 18 May 2026, last checked 7 September 2026.
• OKX Europe, "What are the new trading fees for EEA users?", updated 3 September 2026, last checked 7 September 2026.
• ESMA register of authorised crypto-asset service providers, as of 21 August 2026, row OKX Europe Limited (LEI 54930069NLWEIGLHXU42).
• Finst, "Fees", last checked 22 August 2026.

Crypto is high-risk; you can lose your deposit, and with leveraged products more than your deposit. This is not financial advice.