Despite Crypto still being a significantly smaller component, OKX is entering the Australian retirement market.
On Sunday, the exchange announced the launch of a self-controlled retirement pension fund or SMSF platform.
These private retirement measures allow individuals and small groups to directly manage their savings and provide alternatives to the industry and retail funds that control Australia's pension schemes.
“The adoption is already much higher than most people realize. SMSFCryptoHoldings has grown seven times since 2021, with $1.7 billion (US$1.1 billion) to $1.8 billion (US$1.2 billion)” Decryption.
Cooper said OKX has developed the platform in consultation with trustees and industry experts, with features such as custody, multi-signature security and reporting, which are reported across 22 tokens.
“This is not about following trends, it's about providing SMSF trustees with serious infrastructure to choose to include digital assets in their portfolios. Australian SMSF trustees manage more money than most sovereign funds.
OKX claims that the new expansion is designed to give both individual and corporate trustees an easy path to add crypto to their retirement portfolios.
Add infrastructure that specifically addresses SMSF requirements, such as audits, compliance checks, and year-end reports for Austrac registered exchange services.
According to data from OKX's statement, digital assets have become the fastest growing retirement pension thread, with SMSF crypto allocations increasing by 746% between March 2020 and March 2025. Overall, SMSF manages almost a third of Australia's $4 trillion retirement pool.
Fresh data Australia's Prudential regulators show that SMSF's total assets had only increased by 5.5% per year through June 2025, suggesting that digital asset allocation within these funds has skyrocketed from low bases five years ago, but that the wider pool of SMSF's savings is expanding at a much slower pace.
Earlier this month, Australia's tax office Report The self-managed superfund was held with a cryptographic value of approximately $3 billion (US$1.9 billion).
SMSF, after a short spike in early 2024, crypto allocations remained stable and heavily weighted on stocks, cash and property, according to the report.
At the time, observers pointed out that investors “missed the rally” back after that peak, in line with how SMSF is a cautious investment product, even if crypto volumes in the Asia-Pacific region surged by about 69% over the same period.
Still, Cooper said he expects OKX to “have thousands of SMSFs in the next 12-24 months,” many of which have switched from other exchanges.
