OKX in Georgia: a deep lari P2P market, low fees and one big caveat

OKX is the exchange many Georgians end up on when they want to cash out USDT into lari without walking into an exchange office. Its GEL P2PP2PPeer-to-peer: you buy crypto from another person and pay them directly (e.g. by TBC or Bank of Georgia transfer) while the platform holds their coins in escrow. market is busy, it takes more Georgian banks than most rivals, and its base trading fee is the lowest among the big global platforms. It is also one of the few large venues where Pi Network trades openly.

What it is not is a Georgian-registered company. That matters more than it sounds, and this review explains why, alongside everything you need to decide whether OKX fits what you want to do. If you are still comparing platforms, start with our overview of crypto exchanges in Georgia and come back here for the detail.

OKX at a glance for a Georgian user

OKX is a global exchange that operates through a group of regional companies. Two of them hold licences that you can check yourself on public registers, and neither of them is Georgian.

The MiCA authorisation is passported across the European Economic Area and covers EU customers. The VARA licence covers Dubai. A Georgian resident who signs up on okx.com sits outside both: the terms of service say users not covered by a regional entity contract with Aux Cayes FinTech Co. Ltd. in the Seychelles. That Georgia falls under this catch-all is our reading of the terms, not something OKX spells out for Georgia.

Can Georgian residents use OKX?

Yes. OKX publishes a list of “restricted locations” in its risk and compliance disclosure. It names Afghanistan, Canada, Cuba, Hong Kong, Iran, India, Japan, Malaysia, Nepal, North Korea, Syria, the occupied Crimea, Donetsk and Luhansk regions, certain US jurisdictions and Uzbekistan. Georgia is not on it.

There is one loose end. OKX’s terms of service refer to a restricted list in a separate clause, and that list was not visible when we read the document. OKX also reserves the right to restrict services in other jurisdictions at any time. So the honest answer is: Georgia is not restricted on the list we could read, but we could not confirm the full terms text. If you plan to keep meaningful savings on OKX, that uncertainty is one more reason to withdraw to your own wallet.

What “not NBG-registered” means for you

Since 1 July 2023, anyone providing virtual-asset services in Georgia has to register with the National Bank of Georgia. On 7 October 2025 the NBG warned that unregistered providers are prohibited from offering these services in Georgia. The warning does not name any exchange and does not say how it applies to foreign platforms serving Georgians from abroad.

In practice this means three things. First, the NBG does not supervise OKX, so you cannot complain to the Georgian regulator if something goes wrong. Second, Georgian banks may ask more questions about money coming from or going to an unregistered platform; our guide to Georgian banks and crypto covers what they look for. Third, if you want a platform that the NBG does supervise, the list of NBG-registered exchanges is short and worth knowing.

The GEL P2P market: banks, depth and how it feels

OKX has no direct lari deposits or withdrawals. Everything in GEL goes through its P2P marketplace, where you trade USDT with another user and pay or receive lari by bank transfer while OKX holds the crypto in escrowEscrowThe platform locks the seller's coins until the seller confirms your payment arrived, so neither side can simply walk away with the money..

This is where OKX stands out. In a snapshot we took of its live order book, GEL ads named these payment methods:

Most ads accept several methods, so the columns don’t add up to the totals: 113 ads were ready to buy USDT for lari and 30 were selling USDT for lari. Ad counts move every hour, so treat them as a sign of depth, not a promise.

Two things follow from those numbers. OKX is a better place to sell USDT for lari than to buy it — more than three times as many counterparties want your USDT as want to sell you theirs. And it is the only exchange in our check where Cartu Bank and Paysera appeared at all, which helps if that is where your salary lands.

For comparison, Bybit showed more ads on both sides in the same check (218 buying, 117 selling), and Binance has the broadest bank list. Independent testing by Datawallet found about half as many OKX ads as on Binance and a Bank of Georgia purchase that took nine minutes to release. Our P2P guide compares the exchanges side by side.

How to sell USDT for lari on OKX P2P

The flow is simple once your account is verified.

Fees: what you actually pay

OKX’s published fee schedule gives a regular account 0.08% maker / 0.10% taker on spot. The first VIP tier drops that to 0.0675% / 0.08%. That makes OKX the cheapest base maker fee among the large exchanges we compared; Bybit, KuCoin, Bitget and WhiteBIT all start at 0.10% / 0.10%.

A makerMaker / taker feeMakers place orders that wait in the book; takers fill existing orders instantly. Takers usually pay slightly more. places a limit order that waits in the book; a taker fills an existing one. If you just tap “buy” at the market price, you are a taker and pay 0.10%.

Other costs to keep in mind:

• P2P price. There is no separate trading fee, but the price in each ad already includes the counterparty’s margin. Compare it with the official rate in our USDT to GEL guide.
• Withdrawals. Sending crypto out costs a network feeNetwork feeThe fee paid to the blockchain itself to process a transfer (also called gas). It goes to miners/validators, not to the exchange. that depends on the coin and network. TRC-20 USDT is normally cheaper than ERC-20.
• Card purchases. OKX’s “buy crypto” page mentions cards, bank transfer, Apple Pay and Google Pay “subject to regional availability”. We could not confirm which of these work with a Georgian card or what they cost, so we don’t quote a figure. Our card-buying guide lists the providers whose Georgian card fees we could check.

Pi Network on OKX

For Pi holders in Georgia, OKX is one of the more practical routes. It is on Pi Network’s official list of KYB-verified businesses, alongside Kraken, Bitget, Gate, MEXC and a handful of on-ramps, and it runs a PI/USDT spot pair. When we last checked, OKX showed about 35.8 million PI traded in 24 hours. Oddly, the FAQ on the same price page says PI “isn’t available to buy” — the page contradicts itself, so trust the live order book rather than the FAQ.

There is no direct PI to lari market anywhere. The route is PI from the Pi Wallet to OKX, PI to USDT on spot, then USDT to GEL on P2P. Binance, Bybit and KuCoin are not on Pi’s KYB list. Our Pi Coin guide walks through the migration and the scams aimed at Georgian Pioneers.

Getting money back to a Georgian bank

Cashing out from OKX means P2P. You sell USDT to a buyer who sends lari to your Bank of Georgia, TBC, Liberty, Credo, Cartu or BasisBank account. We found no documented way to withdraw directly to a Georgian card from OKX.

If you prefer a direct bank rail, WhiteBIT is the only one of the large exchanges with GEL deposits and withdrawals to TBC Bank and Hashbank, and Bybit Georgia’s TBC partnership lets TBC customers trade inside their bank app. For tax, individuals generally owe no Georgian income tax on gains from selling crypto — see the crypto tax guide for the conditions — but keep your P2P history and bank statements in case your bank asks for source of fundsSource of fundsDocuments showing where money came from (salary, sale of property, exchange statements). Georgian banks may ask for them on large crypto-related transfers..

Who OKX suits — and who should look elsewhere

OKX makes sense if you regularly sell USDT for lari and want a wide choice of Georgian banks, if your bank is Cartu or you use Paysera, if you trade often enough for the 0.08% maker fee to matter, or if you hold Pi and need a KYB-listed venue.

It is a weaker fit if you want a platform the National Bank of Georgia supervises, if you mainly want to buy USDT with lari (the buy side of its GEL book is thin), or if you need a direct GEL bank withdrawal. In those cases, look at Bybit Georgia, WhiteBIT or the local options in our Tbilisi buying guide.

Whatever you choose, don’t treat any exchange as a bank. Move long-term holdings to a wallet you control; our crypto wallet guide explains the options.