OKX released its 47th consecutive monthly proof-of-reserves report on September 30, showing 139,865 BTC in customer account assets as of a September 8 snapshot. That is up 4.07%, or 5,466 BTC, from the August 11 report, with total primary assets across 22 supported coins valued at $27.4 billion.
The report is the exchange’s regular solvency disclosure, published monthly since December 2022. It uses zk-STARK zero-knowledge proofs and Merkle trees, letting users verify their own balances are included without exposing anyone else’s account data. In a market still digesting the Bitget hack and its aftermath, exchange balance sheets are getting more attention than usual.
What the numbers show
OKX reported holding 153,151 BTC in exchange-controlled wallet assets against the 139,865 BTC in customer accounts, a Bitcoin reserve ratio of 109%. Of the exchange’s own holdings, 146,359 BTC sit under direct OKX custody and another 6,792 BTC with third-party custodians. The exchange’s total Bitcoin position of 153,151 BTC is worth about $13 billion at current prices, against $11.88 billion owed to customers.
The wider asset coverage held above water across the board:
| Asset | Reserve ratio |
|---|---|
| Bitcoin (BTC) | 109% |
| USDT | 105% |
| Ethereum (ETH) | 101% |
| USD Coin (USDC) | 100% |
The XRP picture stood out for growth. OKX holds about 244.5 million XRP, currently worth a little above $366 million, up 33% year-to-date from the 165.6 million customers held on the platform in the first January report. The exchange’s balance covers customer holdings at a 108% ratio, split between roughly 238.3 million XRP on the platform itself and 6.19 million XRP parked with third-party custodies.
According to Traders Union, wallet holdings for the four largest assets, BTC, ETH, USDT and USDC, rose 32% year-over-year in aggregate. That tracks with the broader deposit trend across major exchanges as spot ETF flows and quarter-end positioning pull coins onto centralized venues.
How the verification works
The zk-STARK approach lets OKX prove the total sum of customer liabilities without revealing individual balances. Each user can check that their own account balance is a leaf in the published Merkle tree, by copying their verification data from the report page and running it through an open tool. The exchange separately proves on-chain ownership of its wallet addresses and total holdings, closing the loop between what customers are owed and what the exchange actually controls.
There are limits worth noting. The report is a snapshot, so tokens moved after the September 8 capture date are not reflected. Assets outside the 22 covered coins get no verification at all. And a proof of reserves on its own does not prove solvency, since a hidden liability elsewhere, an off-balance-sheet loan for example, would not appear in the snapshot. Full proofs of reserves and liabilities, which OKX also publishes as downloadable reserve and liability files on a public download page, get closer to the real answer, though even those depend on the exchange’s own attestation of completeness. Users who want independent assurance still rely on the on-chain wallet checks alongside the cryptographic files.
Context: exchange scrutiny is elevated
The report lands days after the Bitget exploit, in which attackers drained roughly $388 million and users pulled more than 4,000 BTC, about $334 million, in the first hour after withdrawals reopened. THORChain, meanwhile, refused a request from the exchange to block the stolen funds as they converted 2,390 ETH into 75.2 BTC through its bridges. The episode restarted a familiar argument about whether protocols should be able, or willing, to freeze stolen assets at all.
Against that backdrop, monthly reserve disclosures have become a competitive feature rather than a compliance chore. As crypto.news noted, Bitget’s own September report, its 46th, showed a 135% total reserve ratio across 19 assets, while Binance, Bybit and OKX each publish recurring reports with different verification methods. Coinbase, notably, does not use the same zk-proof model at all, relying instead on other assurance approaches.
OKX’s own cadence has been consistent: monthly snapshots through 2026, with previous reports dated August 11, July 7, June 19, May 7, April 20 and March 3. The exchange also has a product showcase coming up, OKX Now in Singapore on October 6, where it is expected to present ecosystem updates alongside the transparency program.
Why it matters for the market
Customer deposits rising while Bitcoin trades near $84,000 suggests holders are keeping coins within reach for trading rather than self-custody, at least at the margin. Exchange balances have been one of the watched indicators this quarter, since rising exchange BTC balances are often read as potential sell-side supply while falling balances are read as accumulation. Neither reading is reliable on its own, but the direction gets quoted in every weekly flow report.
The XRP growth is its own story. A 33% year-to-date rise in platform balances lines up with the Evernorth treasury vote that cleared in late September, moving the Ripple-backed XRP treasury company toward a Nasdaq listing under the ticker XRPN with at least 473 million XRP on its balance sheet, and with institutional interest around the ledger’s Batch settlement upgrade, now expected to activate October 9. Traders positioning around those events appear to have parked XRP on the exchange.
Whether the deposit trend holds through October, a month with a Fed decision on the 28th, Ethereum’s Glamsterdam testnet on the 6th and heavy ETF flows, will show up in the next snapshot around mid-month.
For now the numbers say what exchanges want them to say: more customer assets, more than 1:1 backing on every covered coin, and a verification method anyone can run without trusting the marketing. The open question, as always with proof of reserves, is what the snapshot cannot see.