Pacifica vs OKX

Pacifica or OKX: which to use

Pacifica vs OKX is a decentralized exchange against a centralized one. On Pacifica you trade from your own wallet without ID, at 1.5 bp maker and 4 bp taker, with up to 50x. OKX holds your funds in an account, requires advanced verification before you trade, deposit or withdraw, and charges 2 bp maker and 5 bp taker, with up to 100x. OKX lists 480 markets against Pacifica's 77. Custody, ID and leverage ceiling are the main differences between them.

How each exchange is built

Pacifica is a decentralized exchange (DEX) on Solana. You trade from a self-custody wallet, so your funds stay with you and not with the company. It matches orders on a central limit order book.

OKX is a centralized exchange (CEX): you open an account with the company, and the account holds your funds. It also matches orders on a central limit order book.

For the trader this means a different setup. On Pacifica you sign trades from a wallet. On OKX you log in to an account and complete verification first.

Fees and what they mean

Pacifica's base tier is 1.5 bp maker and 4 bp taker, per Pacifica's fee page. OKX's base tier is 2 bp maker and 5 bp taker, per OKX's fee page.

A market order pays the taker fee to open and again to close: 8 bp per round trip on Pacifica, 10 bp on OKX. A limit order that rests on the book pays the maker fee instead, 1.5 bp on Pacifica and 2 bp on OKX.

Fees are only part of a trade's cost. Slippage, the price you move by eating through the order book, grows with size. The round trip in the cost table above adds the taker fee twice and the slippage we read from each live order book, at sizes from $1k to $5M. Every exchange's trading cost is compared on one page.

Markets and leverage

As of 1 October 2026 OKX lists 480 active perps, 191 of them stocks, commodities, FX or other real-world assets. Pacifica lists 77, 24 of them real-world assets.

OKX allows up to 100x and Pacifica up to 50x on their highest-leverage markets; most markets allow less. Pacifica pays funding every hour on every market. OKX pays every 4 hours or 8 hours depending on the market. An hourly market settles 24 times a day, a 4-hour market six times and an 8-hour market three times, so check a market's interval before you hold a position. The list further down this page shows the markets both exchanges have and each one's funding rate.

Who can use them

Pacifica asks for no ID. It is closed to the US, Canada, the UK, China, Russia, Ukraine, the Philippines and sanctioned countries. OKX requires advanced verification before trading, deposits or withdrawals.

Tokens and points

Pacifica has no token yet. As of 19 September 2026 its points and airdrop program was "Active". The airdrops page lists the points programs running and the tokens launched. OKX's token is $OKB. Pacifica has no vault run by the exchange that arb.sh tracks.

Reading the numbers on this page

Pacifica publishes open interest as longs plus shorts, both sides of every position. OKX publishes one side of open positions. For the same positions Pacifica's figure reads about twice as large, so the open interest row and chart above are not a like-for-like comparison of size.

Centralized exchanges publish no TVL, so OKX has none and the TVL row and chart show Pacifica alone, as DefiLlama's figure for the exchange.

Which one fits you

• Pick Pacifica if you want to keep funds in your own wallet and trade without ID.
• Pick Pacifica if you trade with market orders: 4 bp taker against 5 bp.
• Pick Pacifica if you want every market on hourly funding, or a points program that was "Active" as of 19 September 2026.
• Pick OKX if you prefer an exchange account and accept advanced verification.
• Pick OKX if you want 191 stock, commodity, FX and other real-world asset perps next to your crypto on one exchange.
• Pick OKX if you need more than 50x, up to 100x on its highest-leverage markets.