After Bitmain, OKEx to introduce stringent KYC procedures for customer identity verification

The Hong-Kong based cryptocurrency exchange, OKEx has introduced stricter KYC [Know Your Customer] procedures on the platform. This comes at the onset of stringency exhibited by the government of China in the cryptocurrency sector, especially the promotion of Initial Coin Offering [ICO] and cryptocurrency trading.

This will alter the daily withdrawal limit to be adhered by the customers of OKEx, which will depend on the KYC level passed by individuals. Subsequently, the new KYC rule is set to be imposed by 28th August, as stated by OKEx Support last week. The users must complete at least level 1 of the KYC verification to withdraw any tokens. The rule is applicable to the customer base of all the partners of the exchange. The announcement read:

“Withdrawal limits for – Unverified accounts: 0 KYC level 1 accounts: 2BTC every 24 hours KYC level 2 & 3 accounts: 100BTC every 24 hours (may increase according to the user’s trading volume)”

While a customer may withdraw 100 BTC on passing levels 2 and 3 of the KYC, 2 BTC can be withdrawn under the daily withdrawal limit by just providing passport data verification. To pass the higher levels, documents such as address proof will also be mandatory. Furthermore, customers might face a loss of funds if they do not transfer all funds to an account, in case of possessing multiple accounts on OKEx.

OKEx was founded in 2014 and claims to have received investments worth millions of dollars from leading enterprises such as Giant Network Group, VenturesLab, eLong, Qianhe Capital Management and other big companies. The exchange recently announced support for Cardano [ADA] and also added TRX/OKB as a new trading pair on its platform.

However, OKEx is not alone in initializing KYC for its customers. Earlier this month, the Bitcoin mining conglomerate Bitmain also brought KYC regulation for its users to purchase ASIC mining chip. This was reportedly done in order to adhere to the regulatory policies of the cryptocurrency space. One can only buy equipment for mining post the completion of the KYC process. The news created a buzz on the social media portal, Reddit, wherein a user wrote:

“If you’re a troll pretending to be an anarchist, and dissing CSW for using patents, how are you ok with Bitmain having to be legally compliant? Many of you might have missed that Bitmain requires KYC now to buy their miners.”

To this, another Reddit user replied, subtly defending Bitmain. The comment read:

“True, businesses should be associations with full responsibility, not a company with limited responsibility. But you can hardly blame all that on Bitmain”