Crypto exchange OKX reduced roughly one‑third of its institutional sales team as part of a wider global restructuring. The exchange did not disclose an exact headcount for the cuts but framed the move as a targeted realignment of institutional resources.
OKX overhauled its institutional business, trimming the sales organization while reallocating capital and talent to other priorities. The exchange characterized the reductions as a deliberate pivot rather than a company‑wide downsizing, aimed at increasing efficiency and strengthening regulatory alignment for institutional clients.
Management has emphasized the reallocation toward products and services that rely on deeper regulatory controls and infrastructure, including custody integrations and solutions intended to reduce counterparty exposure for large clients.
Compliance and OKX plans for expansion
By 2025 OKX’s global headcount had surpassed 5,000 employees, and the firm had significantly expanded its US presence, growing a local team to roughly 500 and opening a new headquarters in San Jose, California. OKX also increased its compliance bandwidth: it added more than 300 compliance professionals in 2024 and built a compliance organization that now exceeds 500 specialists.
Those investments in compliance and regional footprint underpinned parallel commercial moves. OKX expanded custody services with Standard Chartered in the European Economic Area, enabling institutional clients to keep assets with the bank while using them as collateral on OKX — a structure intended to lower counterparty risk.
The exchange also secured MiCA licensing in Europe, positioning its institutional products on a regulatory foundation within the bloc.
The institutional cuts therefore fit a broader recalibration: reduce a large, sales‑heavy footprint and concentrate on regulated custody, compliance controls and product depth that institutional counterparties require.
Looking ahead, market participants will watch whether the reallocation produces measurable gains in institutional activity and risk management. OKX has signaled it will focus R&D and commercial efforts on on‑chain assets, artificial intelligence, privacy and real‑world assets; investors and clients will assess progress by tracking uptake of custody arrangements, regulatory interactions in key markets and the flow of institutional volumes to the platform.
