OKX
Leadership History
3 leaders · 2017 to present
Star Xu is the CEO of OKX, in the role since 2017.
| Name | Role | From | To | Years in role |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Roshan Robert | CEO, OKX US | 2025 | Present | 1 |
| Haider Rafique | Global Managing Partner & CMO | 2022 | Present | 4 |
| Star Xu | Founder & CEO | 2017 | Present | 9 |
OKX is one of the biggest crypto exchanges outside the US, best known for perpetual futures, options and a unified margin account used by professional traders. Since 2025 it has spent heavily on compliance: it pleaded guilty in the US, paid more than $504 million, relaunched a licensed US platform and obtained a MiCA licence in Europe. In March 2026 Intercontinental Exchange invested at a $25 billion valuation and joined its board. The company is headquartered in Victoria, Seychelles. OKX was founded in 2017 by Star Xu as OKEx (rebranding to OKX in 2022) and registered in Seychelles, evolving from a high-volume crypto derivatives exchange into one of the world's largest crypto trading platforms and non-custodial Web3 wallet ecosystems.
OKX makes most of its money from trading fees: maker and taker commissions on spot trades and, above all, on perpetual swaps, futures and options. Further income comes from margin lending interest, Earn and staking products, fiat on-ramps and P2P services, institutional block trading and listings. The OKX Wallet is free to use and earns indirectly through swap routing on its DEX aggregator, while OKB serves as fee-discount token and the gas token of X Layer. OKX does not publish audited revenue, so figures circulating online are estimates.
CEO, OKX US
2025 – Present
1 year (current)
Robert heavily drives the highly complex, massive global compliance strategy, attempting to secure licenses in strictly regulated jurisdictions (like Dubai and Europe) to shed the exchange's 'wild west' reputation.
As a senior executive managing commercial strategy, he orchestrates massive sports sponsorships (like Manchester City and McLaren F1) to aggressively legitimize the OKX brand globally.
Global Managing Partner & CMO
2022 – Present
4 years (current)
Rafique orchestrated the absolute massive, multi-hundred-million-dollar global rebranding campaign that completely transformed OKX from an obscure Chinese exchange into one of the most highly visible crypto brands on Earth.
As Chief Marketing Officer, he successfully weaponized massive Web3 marketing partnerships to directly combat Binance's global dominance and capture retail market share.
Founder & CEO
2017 – Present
9 years (current)
Founded Okcoin in 2013 and OKEx in 2017; exited mainland China in 2021; rebranded to OKX in 2022; settled US charges in 2025 and relaunched in the US; brought in ICE as a strategic investor in 2026.
A physics graduate from University of Science and Technology Beijing, Xu is one of the earliest blockchain pioneers in Asia, building high-throughput financial architectures.
OKX competes with Binance, Bybit, Bitget and Coinbase for derivatives and spot volume, operates under a 2025 US guilty plea and compliance obligations, and must keep licences current across the EU (MiCA), Dubai (VARA), Singapore and other markets while stablecoin and tokenized-stock rules keep changing.
Mingxing 'Star' Xu is the Founder and CEO of OK Group (parent company of OKX). A graduate in applied physics from the University of Science and Technology Beijing, Xu worked as an engineer at Yahoo and DocIn before founding OKCoin in 2013 and OKX in 2017, pioneering Bitcoin trading and derivatives infrastructure.
Hong Fang serves as Global President of OKX. A former Goldman Sachs investment banker in New York with an MBA from the University of Chicago Booth, Fang leads OKX's global regulatory expansion, institutional capital partnerships, and corporate governance across the Americas and Europe.
Haider Rafique serves as Global Chief Marketing Officer of OKX. A former marketing executive at Blockchain.com and Microsoft, Rafique led OKX's 2022 global rebranding, orchestrated the high-profile Manchester City and McLaren F1 partnerships, and launched the award-winning 'What is OKX?' global campaign.
Following China's 2017 and 2021 crypto trading restrictions, Star Xu successfully internationalized OKX's entire operational architecture, moving corporate entities offshore, building distributed engineering teams across Europe, Asia, and the Americas, and securing licensed entities in tier-1 financial jurisdictions.
Star Xu advocates that while centralized exchanges provide essential liquidity and fiat gateways, the ultimate destiny of cryptocurrency is non-custodial Web3 self-sovereignty, driving OKX's large engineering investments into its non-custodial Web3 Wallet and MPC cryptography.
OKX's mission is to build the world's most accessible, transparent, and powerful decentralized financial ecosystem, empowering individuals with financial sovereignty, borderless value exchange, and frictionless Web3 access.
Roshan Robert, a former Barclays executive, was named US CEO in April 2025 when OKX relaunched its US exchange and wallet.
Hong Fang served as CEO of Okcoin and later President of OKX, driving the exchange's global regulatory transformation, institutional banking relationships, and corporate restructuring after a distinguished banking career at Goldman Sachs.
Compare executive leadership tenures and strategic transitions
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