It’s been a big year for crypto and blockchain. As 2019 began, cryptocurrency enthusiasts brooded over the prospect of another crypto winter. At its close, several governments showed renewed interest in blockchain innovation by implementing new crypto legislation and regulations. For all the industry’s ups and downs, we envision an exciting era for blockchain and crypto technologies ahead.
At the same time, we have experienced major developments of our own. As we ring in the New Year, let’s take a look back at a few of our milestones.
1. We extended our global reach
To achieve our mission of making digital assets accessible to the world, we’ve continued to focus on expanding our services tailored towards our international customers. These initiatives include coverage within the United Kingdom and a new European office on Malta’s Blockchain Island. We won’t be stopping there. Stay tuned to learn about the new international offices we’ll be launching soon.
We also streamlined our identity verification processes by extending support for local identification cards. This enhancement makes it much easier for users around the globe to register for an account. Now, instead of using a passport, residents of verified countries can now use their national ID and/or driver license when verifying their identities.
2. We introduced OKCoin Premier
Outside of adding new token pairs, we focused on ensuring that our institutional clients and professional traders were well-equipped to conduct high-volume trading. That’s why we launched OKCoin Premier, a program that grants premium benefits to our platform’s most advanced users.
Since Premier’s launch earlier this year, we have delivered a wide array of premium features and services to our clients, including:
- Instant fund options
- Wire pre-crediting up to $100,000 USD
- Trading fee discounts and increase margin limits
- Unlimited deposit and withdrawal addresses
- Priority and dedicated customer service
- Flexible settlement options
Visit our feature page for more details.
3. We updated our processes, features, and banking partnerships
When cryptocurrency becomes mainstream, exchanges like OKCoin must serve customers through multiple touchpoints with the utmost possible ease. To that end, in 2019, we expanded our platform’s processes, partnerships, and transaction capabilities. A few highlights include:
- OKCoin Security Response Center focused on continuously strengthening our foundation for security and compliance practices.
- Savings, a digital asset value-added service
- New asset curation process, in which we periodically review tokens with low trading volume and suspend them to support the health of the marketplace
- SEPA euro payment channel and support for PrimeTrust
- Lowered our trading fees
- Enhanced our reporting capabilities
These features aim to make our platform accessible and dependable for all users while continuing to meet the utmost of regulatory standards.
4. We brought six new tokens to our exchange
In 2019, we listed desired assets like EURS, EOS, TRX, USDK, HBAR, and DCR. All additions are supported as USD fiat-to-token trading pairs, while EURS can also be traded for euros or bitcoin.
These additions bring our number of supported tokens to a total of 21. Each token on our platform is vetted by our crypto experts based on usability, underlying technology, and their surrounding communities, ensuring they will represent the highest possible value for our clients.
In 2020, we look forward to introducing more trading pairs. We also will continue to evaluate token performance, ensuring that our exchange liquidity consists of assets that our users care about. You can read the following guide for details on how we curate our token listings.
5. We introduced euro trading pairs
In addition to expanding our global presence, we also introduced euro trading pairs. As of September 4th, 2019, users can participate in euro trading for leading digital assets, such as Bitcoin, Ethereum, Bitcoin Cash, and EURS, with more assets coming soon.
The European system is an excellent example of what crypto businesses can accomplish when they work closely with government regulators. While formal, comprehensive legislation is ongoing, crypto has flourished under the EU’s stringent AML, KYC, and consumer privacy regulations. Today, European crypto markets are expanding rapidly, driven in part by the innovation from Malta’s newly-founded Blockchain Campus.
Our hope is that in 2020 and beyond, customers from around the world will be able to benefit from tailored services and trade the fiat of their choosing. Stay tuned as we broaden our trading pair support for international markets like Singapore!
6. We enhanced our domestic operational reach
Just because we’re making crypto accessible to the world it doesn’t mean we’ve forgotten about customers in the USA. In 2019, we focused on expanding our fiat-to-token trading services now servicing 22 states:
- Alabama
- Arkansas
- Colorado
- Connecticut
- Georgia
- Idaho
- Iowa
- Kentucky
- Maine
- Maryland
- Mississippi
- Missouri
- Montana
- New Mexico
- North Dakota
- Oregon
- Pennsylvania
- Rhode Island
- South Dakota
- Utah
- Washington
- Wisconsin
This grows our areas of operations list to a total of 40 states. We’re coming for the final ten in 2020 — watch out!
7. We grew our team and welcomed a new chairman
We’ve been expanding our team. This year alone, we doubled our product and AML teams to ensure we’re better equipped to deal with all sorts of developments in the crypto sphere.
Hong Fang also joined our team as OKCoin Chairman and OK Group Chief Operating Officer. Hong is a former Goldman Sachs banker and Giant Network Head of Investment & Strategy with a passion for crypto development and a deep understanding of the infrastructure that drives financial markets. She is committed to securing our position as both an innovator and a driving force across the emerging digital economy.
8. We launched multiple community engagement initiatives
One of the best parts of working in cryptocurrency is being able to interact with enthusiastic personalities who drive the industry. That’s we were deeply honored to take part in a wide variety of events with the crypto community. Outside of engaging with our community through Let’s Build Bitcoin Together community donation and 20 Days to 2020, we also hosted and participated at events across North America, South America, and Europe.
But that wasn’t enough. For 2019, we wanted to take additional steps to highlight the crypto community. To that end, we introduced OK Let’s Chat, a monthly podcast that showcases unique voices, explores new projects and speculates on emerging blockchain applications. Our host, Alex Feinberg, has already hosted several highly-engaging discussions. Here are a few highlights:
- Bitcoin Association founding president Jimmy Nguyen argues that cryptocurrency transactions should be private, but not anonymous.
- CEO and founding partner of Luna Capital, Lindsey Maule, discusses how institutional crypto adoption is just getting started
- Chief Marketing Officer of Voyager, Steve Capone, says, “one day, everything will be a digital asset.”
- Libbitcoin institute founders, Eric Voskiul and Thomas Pacchia, dive into what a bitcoin driven financial system will look like.
With so many engaging topics, it’s worthwhile to check out OK Let’s Chat every month. You can listen to new episodes from iTunes, the OKCoin blog, or anywhere else that podcast subscriptions are available.
Saying farewell to 2019
Every year, we take great strides in expanding and refining our regulated trading platform. Yet even now, there is still so much to do. From everyone at OKCoin, we wish you a Happy New Year and hope you’ll join us in 2020 to see what tomorrow’s crypto advancements bring.
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