OKX Margin, Expired Futures, Perpetual Futures Delisting Process Standards

Published on Mar 2, 2023Updated on Dec 15, 202312 min read

Last Updated: 15 December 2023

1. General

1.1 These standards are adopted in accordance with the principles of fairness, openness, justice and transparency.

1.2 The loan and transaction referred to in these standards mean that the user provides collateral to OKX (hereinafter referred to as "the company"), through OKX.com website or application (hereinafter referred to as “OKX.com” or “Platform”), to trade and use them for investment transactions, under the margin, expiry futures and perpetual futures trading.

1.3 On OKX.com, these standards apply to any loan and transaction under margin trading, expiry futures trading and perpetual futures trading. You may also refer to and apply the "OKX Terms of Service", "OKX Margin Trading User Agreement", "OKX Expiry Futures Trading User Agreement", "OKX Perpetual Futures Trading User Agreement" and other relevant terms, policies, rules and agreements available at OKX.com.

2. Expiry Futures and Perpetual Futures Delisting

2.1 Token Issuer Issues

(1) Systemic risk issues:

(i) Significant changes in the management, shareholder structure and/or business model of the token issuer, but without the consent of the company, or there is a private sale of business;

(ii) The information provided by the token issuer is suspected of serious fraud or manipulation of market prices, facing substantial legal and negativity issues;

(iii) The token issuer deliberately conceals possible major events that may seriously affect the price of the token, or the token is not used in accordance with the lock-up mechanism and disclosure; or

(iv) The token issuer’s system has operational security risks, or its social media website has not been maintained or updated for a long time, its open source code has not been updated for a long time, or there are security loopholes in the code level, and it faces substantial security risks if it is attacked.

(2) Technical security issues:

When the system encounters scenarios such as main-net switching, hard fork, split, or reverse split that require token replacement, it will be delisted for safety reasons before completion of technical rectification.

2.2 Platform Issues

(1) Transaction risk issues:

(i) The system is facing relatively significant liquidity risk, and the market depth is not enough to support a good trading experience or to open and close positions on a certain scale;

(ii) When the underlying index of the leveraged token is lessened or the index component is unstable, the Platform will evaluate the relevant parameters and determine whether it does not meet the standards; or

(iii) When a substantial market risk event occurs in the leveraged token, or there are other relatively high hidden risks in the market.

3. Margin Delisting

3.1 Token Issuer Issues

(1) Systemic risk issues:

(i) Significant changes in the management, shareholder structure and/or business model of the token issuer, but without the consent of the company, or private sale of business;

(ii) The information provided by the token issuer is suspected of serious fraud or manipulation of market prices, facing substantial legal and negativity issues;

(iii) The token issuer deliberately conceals possible major events that may seriously affect the price of the token, or the token is not used in accordance with the lock-up mechanism and disclosure; or

(iv) The token issuer’s system has operational security risks, or its social media website has not been maintained or updated for a long time, its open source code has not been updated for a long time, or there are security loopholes in the code level, and it faces substantial security risks if it is attacked.

(2) Technical security issues:

When the system encounters scenarios such as main-net switching, hard fork, split, or reverse split that require token replacement, it will be delisted for safety reasons before completion of technical rectification.

3.2 Platform Issues

(1) Transaction risk issues:

(i) The system faces relatively significant liquidity risks, and the market depth is not enough to support users with a good trading experience or to open and close positions on a certain scale;

(ii) When the underlying index of the leveraged token are lessen or the index component is unstable, the Platform will evaluate the relevant parameters and determine whether it does not meet the standards; or

(iiv) When a substantial market risk event occurs in the leveraged token, or there are other relatively high hidden risks in the market.

4. Dealing with Expiry Futures and Perpetual Futures Trading

4.1 Dealing with closing

(1) Perpetual Futures:

(i) In most cases, the time weighted average index or transaction price of the perpetual contract over the last hour before the delisting date (price points taken every 200ms) shall be used as the closing price, and the closing shall be carried out at the pre-determined delisting time.

(2) Expiry Futures:

(i) In the absence of any abnormal circumstances, the expiry futures trading adopts the normal closing of open positions, meaning that any open position will be closed on the futures contract’s maturity date at the real-time market transaction price.

(ii) In the case of an emergency, the futures contract may be forced to be closed in a unified way, and all open positions will be closed/delisted at the specified time point as set out in an announcement, and the time weighted average index or transaction price of the futures contracts over the last hour before the closing/delisting date (price points taken every 200ms) shall be used as the closing price.

4.2 Regarding the processing of open positions when delisting happens

For perpetual futures trading and expiry futures trading that need to be delisted urgently, the time weighted average index or transaction price of the perpetual or futures contract over the last hour before the delisting date shall be used as the closing price of the contract, and all users’ open positions shall be closed. If the index prices or the latest transaction prices over the last hour before the delisting date have been abnormally manipulated, the company may adjust the closing price to a reasonable level for closing according to the actual circumstances. For contract positions that are scheduled to be closed due to delisting, the user's open positions at the time of the delisting will be closed on the contract’s maturity date at the real-time market transaction price.

4.3 On the issue of users' liquidation when delisting happens

Considering that the market may fluctuate volatilely before the delisting, if the user’s margin is unable to meet his losses when there is a delisting, the risk reserves will give priority to compensation, and for any portion of the compensation unable to be met by the risk reserves, the system shall automatically close out the open positions of profitable users.

4.4 About the liquidation fee when delisting happens

For any unclosed positions of users when they are delisted, the Platform will automatically settle them in accordance to our terms, and the company will not charge any fees.

4.5 Questions about adjusting contract parameters before delisting happens

Before delisting, the Platform shall have the discretion to adjust contract parameters such as gearing rate, funding rate and limit price as appropriate in accordance to the actual market condition, to reduce the risk in the process of delisting.

4.6 About the user notification before delisting happens

Under normal circumstances, the company will notify users in the form of an announcement 7 days in advance (except for emergencies due to risk control and other issues). For users with numerous open contract positions, the company will notify users by phone. Due to the fact that each contract may have potential risks, the time to delist or block a certain contract is subject to the actual time set out in the announcement at that time. The company recommends that users close their positions before the specified delisting time to avoid automatic settlement of positions.

4.7 About the transfer of funds after delisting happens

When the perpetual contract or futures contract is delisted in a a manner that closes out the contract before the contract’s maturity date, the trading account of the user whose total position value is greater than 10,000 US dollars will be restricted from all asset transfers, and this restriction will be lifted after 30 minutes.

4.8 Inquiry about the transaction records of delisted contracts

If users need to inquire about the transaction records of delisted contracts, they shall obtain such records in their historical transaction records and orders. If users need to back up their records, please go to the Platform’s Order Center to download.

4.9 Other issues

(1) The calculation and collection of the current funding rate when the perpetual contract is delisted.

The current funding rate at 16:00 on the delisting day is 0 (so the funding fee for this period will not appear in the transaction bill), no funding fee will be charged when the user's position is closed, and the company will not charge additional fees such as closing fees.

(2) During the normal closing process of a contract to be delisted, whether a new contract of the delisted contract with a new maturity date shall be created.

From the commencement of the process of normally closing a delisted contract to the contract’s maturity date, no new contract of the delisted contract can be created.

5. Dealing with Margin Trading

5.1 About adjusting the leverage parameters before delisting happens

Before delisting, the Platform shall adjust parameters such as gearing ratios as appropriate according to the current market situation, so as to reduce the risk in the process of delisting leverage products.

5.2 About the suspension of borrowing time when delisting happens

Under normal circumstances, the company will suspend or cease the loan service of the token pairs and token 1-3 days before the delisting margin trading of the token. The specific time is subject to the announcement.

5.3 Regarding the processing of open positions when delisting happens

Users who have borrowed or pledged in a leveraged trading pair or token loan must repay the token before the leveraged token pair or token is delisted. If the loaned token is not returned by then, the system will trigger the forced closing of positions to force the repayment of loan of the delisted token. In the process of forced closing of positions to repay the user’s loan, the user’s stable token asset USDT is used first, and then tokens at a buy-in discount rate from small to large shall be used.

5.4 The time required for the delisting process of a leveraged pair

Normally, it takes about 1 hour for each leveraged pair to delist, and the positions of all borrowing users will be forcibly closed within 1 hour to trigger a repayment of the loan. This timing is for reference only and may not reflect the actual timeline during the delisting process.

5.5 Questions about leverage liquidation fees when delisting happens

The company will automatically settle the unclosed position of the user when the user goes offline, and the margin forced liquidation fee shall be same as the spot handling fee.

5.6 About the user notification before the leverage is offline

Normally, the company will notify users 7 days in advance in the form of an announcement (except for emergencies due to risk control and other issues). For users with numerous leveraged positions, the company will notify users by phone. Due to the fact that each leverage may have different security risks, the final time to block or delist a certain leverage is subject to the actual time set out in the announcement at that time. The company recommends that users close their positions before the offline time to avoid triggering any forced closing of positions.

5.7 Inquiry about the transaction records of delisted leverage products

If the user needs to inquire about the transaction records of the delisted leveraged products, they can obtain such records in their historical transaction records of orders. If the user needs to back up their records, please go to the Platform’s Order Center download.

6. User Agreement

6.1 User shall agree to "OKX Margin Trading User Agreement", "OKX Expiry Futures Trading User Agreement" and/or "OKX Perpetual Futures User Agreement" before conducting any trading activities.

6.2 User may place trading orders with us via OKX.com to borrow/repay the loans, including BTC and other tokens, as approved by us.

6.3 We provide information release, management and risk control services for token lending. However, there have been no promises, guarantees or warranties suggesting that any trading will result in a profit or will not result in a loss. User shall carefully consider whether such an investment is suitable in light of their own financial position and investment objectives, and invest responsibly at their sole discretion.

7. Additional Terms

7.1 These standards are adopted and interpreted by our company at our sole discretion. These standards and any further amendments from time to time are in effect immediately after publication.

7.2 The content of these standards also includes various terms, policies, other agreements, standards or rules as referred to in these standards, "OKX Margin Trading User Agreement", "OKX Margin Trading Guide", "OKX Expiry Futures Trading User Agreement", "OKX Perpetual Futures User Agreement" etc., and the company may continue to publish other related agreements, rules, etc. about the Service. Once the above contents are officially released, it forms an integral part of these standards, and users should also abide by it.

7.3 If there is a conflict between the content of the English version of these standards and the content of translated versions in other languages, the content of the English version of these standards shall prevail.

7.4 Any matters related to these standards, including but not limited to the existence, validity, performance, modification, interpretation and dispute resolution of these standards, shall be governed by the laws of Seychelles.

7.5 If there is any dispute or controversy between a user and the company, it should first be resolved through friendly negotiation; if the negotiations fail, both parties shall agree to resolve the disagreement or dispute through the courts in the Seychelles.

7.6 The heading of all clauses in these standards are for convenience only and shall not affect its interpretation.