Letter from OKX CEO Star
Today, we officially launched the first version of OKX Pay for over a hundred million global users. As the industry’s first payment application that truly integrates non-custodial and compliant solutions, OKX Pay will be embedded within the OKX App and is currently available in select markets, with a full rollout expected in the coming months.
OKX Pay is an important step towards our vision of “Integrating Crypto into Life.” Next, let’s take a closer look at how OKX Pay will realize this vision.
Imagine: easily achieving non-custodial transactions, conveniently completing payments, while also earning passive income; all within a Web3 payment application that offers a user experience as smooth as that of Web2 applications.
First, we need to review the development history of custody and payments. Since the inception of self-custody wallets, the idea of “Not your keys, not your money” has been a great concept. However, due to overly complex user experiences, successfully using self-custody wallets remains a challenge. For example, once a private key is lost, the associated crypto assets are irretrievably lost.
It is estimated that among the total supply of 21 million bitcoins, approximately 3 to 4 million have been permanently lost, accounting for about 14%–19% of the total supply. At the current price of approximately $90,000 per bitcoin, this amounts to a value of about $195 billion to $260 billion.
Common reasons for asset loss include:
- Loss or forgetting of recovery phrases or private keys
- Hardware wallet failures without backups
- Accidentally sending assets to the wrong chain (e.g., sending BTC to an ETH address)
- Device or hard disk damage (e.g., the story of 8,000 bitcoins in a landfill)
- Smart contract vulnerabilities or accidentally sending tokens to a burn address
The field of crypto payments also faces challenges. In the early days, people attempted to use bitcoin for payments. Do you remember the story of Laszlo Hanyecz buying pizza for 10,000 bitcoins? At today’s prices, that amounts to about $900 million.
Today, although we have mature stablecoin ecosystems like USDT and USDC, there are still barriers to using stablecoins for simple transfers to friends or payments at PoS terminals as easily as using a bank card or traditional payment applications. Additionally, the lack of real-name verification (KYC) for crypto wallets makes it difficult for crypto payments to integrate into the mainstream financial system.
Some institutions in the industry are currently adopting centralized wallets to address this issue. However, in our view, such an approach is still insufficient to drive the widespread adoption of crypto payments.
Through OKX Pay, we hope to allow users to conveniently use their crypto assets in a non-custodial manner. Our solution is distinctive, and here’s a detailed introduction to our approach:
- We have adopted a method of private key sharding management, splitting the private key into two parts: one half is stored in the user’s Passkey, while the other half is stored by OKX. This offers the following benefits:
- If you forget your password, you can easily recover your wallet through the ZK email recovery feature.
- No need to write down the private key on paper or keep it in a hardware wallet; the Passkey is secure enough.
- Security of funds is guaranteed; no one can access them without your authorization.
- We aim to make crypto payments as simple as sending messages. OKX Pay will focus on stablecoin payments, initially supporting USDT and USDC, with plans to gradually integrate more stablecoins in the future. Advantages include:
- With just a few steps, easily transfer funds to anyone globally.
- Ability to transfer funds to individuals or make group transfers at once.
- Zero transaction fees for all transactions on X Layer.
- Near real-time settlements, with no limits on transfer amounts (subject to compliance and risk control).
- We are about to launch a new feature called passive income, where your deposits will automatically generate earnings. Key advantages include:
- Earnings can be generated through low-risk on-chain protocols.
- No manual operations are required; the system automatically seeks quality protocols and completes staking operations.
- Deposits can be withdrawn at any time, with no lock-up periods.
- Eliminates the ongoing management operations required by most staking solutions.
The core of OKX Pay is to achieve a non-custodial experience that does not require users to manage their private keys themselves — a significant barrier that has prevented many from participating in the crypto space. At the same time, OKX Pay is equipped with an industry-leading compliance and risk control system.
In terms of compliance, OKX Pay ensures user and asset safety through mechanisms such as real-name verification (KYC), anti-money laundering (AML), and multisig. Furthermore, without user authorization, OKX cannot unilaterally access any funds.
If users forget their passwords, they need not worry; OKX Pay can recover access through AA and ZK Email features, making wallet recovery as convenient as resetting a bank account password.
In terms of transaction experience, OKX Pay relies on the X Layer public chain, with zero transaction costs. X Layer is OKX’s ZK-based Layer 2 network, built using Polygon’s CDK technology. From the moment of launch, users will also have access to the “Smart Earnings” feature, allowing them to automatically earn returns on held funds.
Building the Future
OKX Pay is far more than just a payment product; I firmly believe its potential and significance are extraordinary.
OKX Pay, together with X Layer, builds the core infrastructure. We are convinced that all financial institutions will need to provide some form of non-custodial service version in the future, covering payment and remittance functions. Financial institutions will be able to develop and deploy dApps, allowing their clients to use OKX Pay. As more people become accustomed to transacting with crypto assets, demand for such services will inevitably surge.
We are fully prepared; OKX Pay offers a fast, efficient, compliant, and secure experience to meet this demand.
In the future, all financial institutions will provide non-custodial services, including payments and remittances, under a compliance framework. OKX Pay and X Layer are building the infrastructure needed for this future, and we expect hundreds of millions of people to embark on their crypto and Web3 journeys.
The crypto industry is accelerating towards mainstream adoption, and OKX Pay will be a significant driver of this transformation.
OKX Pay is not yet available in all jurisdictions.
OKX CEO Star: OKX Pay Will Become the Gateway for Hundreds of Millions of Users into Web3
According to official news, OKX CEO Star announced the official launch of OKX Pay at the Token2049 summit in Dubai, stating that OKX Pay is the world’s first crypto payment wallet with a fully integrated compliance system, supporting users to send and receive USDT and USDC instantly and securely on a global scale.
OKX Pay is built on the Account Abstraction (AA) architecture and ZK Email technology, incorporating mechanisms such as multisig, anti-money laundering (AML), and password recovery, while achieving zero transaction fees on OKX’s self-developed ZK Layer 2 network X Layer, and providing users with an annual yield of up to 5% on USDT.
Star emphasized: “In the future, all financial institutions will provide some level of non-custodial services in a compliant manner, covering scenarios like payments and remittances. OKX Pay and X Layer are building the underlying infrastructure necessary for this future, which will enable hundreds of millions of users to truly step into the world of crypto and Web3.”