OKX’s $36.36 Billion Reserve Report
OKX marked the fourth anniversary of its Proof of Reserves program with $36.36 billion in on-chain assets reported across 22 major cryptocurrencies. The disclosure lists reserve ratios at or above 100% for every asset covered: Bitcoin (BTC) at 110%, Ethereum (ETH) at 100%, Tether (USDT) at 105% and USD Coin (USDC) at 101%. Its Bitcoin reserves lead the report at 110%, while Ethereum reserves sit at exactly 100%, and customers can review each line on the official public Proof of Reserves verification page. Ratios above 100% indicate reserves exceed the liabilities recorded for each asset. Since introducing the program in November 2022, OKX has run monthly reporting and independent verification as a fixed part of operations, expanding asset coverage and shortening the path to self-checks. The mechanism combines publicly accessible on-chain wallet data with cryptographic proofs built on zk-STARKs, a zero-knowledge method that lets a customer confirm holdings without exposing sensitive account details. Custody assurance answers a different question from network security, which chain-level designs such as proof of work or delegated proof of stake handle; Proof of Reserves asks whether the exchange holds what it owes. The stated aim, as the exchange frames it, is that a customer should never need to trust a bare promise: the tools exist to check the backing directly. Coverage across 22 assets means the report spans the exchange’s main trading lines rather than a curated subset. Andrew Cuomo, the former New York Governor who sits on OKX’s board, set the standard the company is aiming at: “As digital assets become a more significant part of the global financial system, the standard for operating these platforms must be higher. Customers deserve access to the information and tools needed to verify that their assets are backed.” For four years, he added, the program has provided that transparency through consistent, independently verifiable reporting.
OKX Shield Reaches 45% of European VIPs
The transparency record now sits beside a newer, more reactive layer. OKX Shield, launched in October 2026 across the United States and Europe, protects eligible customers affected by unauthorized third-party account takeovers, with reimbursement potential of up to $500,000, subject to the program’s terms and eligibility conditions, and no extra fee. That risk class differs from transaction-level schemes such as a replay attack, which abuses signed payment messages rather than account control itself. VIP customers, the tier of the client base nearest in size to a crypto whale, led adoption: nearly 45% activated Shield in Europe within weeks of launch, and more than 21% of daily active users in the region followed. Over 37% of European customer assets are now covered by the program, and globally nearly 16% of VIP customers have switched it on. Erald Ghoos, CEO of OKX Europe, tied the numbers to product design: “What stands out to me is how quickly our European customers acted. Within weeks of launch, nearly half of our VIPs and more than a fifth of daily active users had switched on Shield. People don’t need convincing that account security matters, they need it to be easy to use and built into the product.” Cuomo drew the division of labor in the same announcement: “Proof of Reserves addresses transparency and asset-backing risk, while Shield addresses the risk of unauthorized account takeovers. Together, they reflect what responsible digital-asset platforms must deliver: transparency, compliance, strong security and customer protection.” The Shield rollout sits inside a wider security stack spanning encryption, access controls, risk infrastructure, proactive threat detection and verifiable reserve reporting. For customers new to the platform, our step-by-step walkthrough of how to buy Bitcoin on OKX covers account setup and withdrawal checks.
