OKX froze a client's account with $400,000 due to missing old trading logs.
Date: 2025-10-01 Author: Henry Casey Categories: BUSINESS
In July 2025, a Russian user named Andrey experienced an unexpected account freeze on the OKX exchange. The reason was trading transactions from five years ago. Despite numerous requests, after nine months of correspondence, he lost access to assets worth approximately $400,000.
On January 11, 2025, OKX's risk management system detected suspicious activity and initiated a client investigation. Following video verification in April, the exchange requested clarification regarding transactions from August 14, 2020. Andrey explained that he was actively scalping and trading within the spread at the time.
On May 20, customer support assured him that no additional documentation was required. However, on July 21, the account was blocked for violating the rules regarding prohibited transactions and the use of an exchange account. According to the client, he received no specific notifications with additional requests.
On July 30, OKX unexpectedly demanded that he provide materials explaining his trading methodology and the choice of trading pairs. Andrey submitted all the available data, including a description of his use of market making according to BitMEX's methodology. However, he did not have any script logs, as they only output data to the console.
The exchange insisted that the user maintain complete trading records for the past five years, although such a requirement had not previously been imposed. Andrey emphasizes that he submitted a market_data.json file containing historical parameters of trading pairs from August 2020, but the platform ignored it.
On September 29, 2025, after nine months of discussions, OKX finally closed the ticket, refusing to review the case. The client's funds remained frozen.
In a comment to ForkLog, OKX representatives stated that they provided the user with all necessary clarifications and recommended contacting the support chat for any additional questions. They did not disclose any further details, citing their privacy policy.
In the summer of 2025, OKX CEO Star Xu publicly apologized for the erroneous account blocking. He attributed the issue to a flawed control system and promised to improve processes. The global compliance and risk management team at that time employed over 600 people.
Andrey's story once again highlighted the risks of centralized platforms. Storing large sums of money on the exchange is unsafe: the company has access to private keys, and assets can be frozen according to internal rules or at the request of regulators.
For long-term cryptocurrency holdings, it is preferable to use non-custodial wallets, where only the owner has control over their keys.
In 2024, OKX already denied accusations of targeted blocking of users from the CIS, claiming that such measures are taken only when violations are identified.
