Yesterday, when I wrote that piece about XDOG, @xiaofuyouOK offered an explanation in a quote post: Under OKX’s plea agreement with the U.S. Department of Justice, the compliance consultant has to stay until February 2027. OKX is still in its remediation period, so it can’t be too aggressive with meme coins.

We can check this claim against the listing announcements from two exchanges.
🐋 The consultant was already there in 2024
On February 24, 2025, OKX’s Seychelles entity admitted to operating an unlicensed money-transmitting business and forfeited about $505 million. The DOJ announcement says this consultant was hired in early 2024, with the responsibility of keeping U.S. users off the OKX platform. The plea agreement requires the consultant to stay until February 2027. The announcement doesn’t mention a single token listing.
During the consultant’s tenure, from August 2024 to January 2025, OKX listed at least 10 meme coins on its spot market: DOGS, NEIRO, CAT, ACT, PNUT, MOODENG, GOAT, PENGU, TRUMP, and VINE.
The change came after the guilty plea. From the end of February 2025 to now, more than 20 months later, there has been only one spot meme coin in OKX’s new-token listing announcements: TOSHI on Base, listed on October 7, 2025.
🐋 Binance is under closer scrutiny, but keeps listing them anyway
Binance pleaded guilty in 2023 and accepted an independent monitor selected by the Department of Justice. The monitor took up the role in May 2024, under a three-year agreement, with far greater authority than OKX’s adviser.
After the monitor took up the role, Binance kept listing meme coins on its spot market: NEIRO and TURBO in September 2024; ACT and PNUT in November; and TRUMP in January 2025. This January, it also listed the Chinese-language meme coin 币安人生 on BNB Chain, followed by 牛来 in September.
Both pleaded guilty, and both had someone looking over their shoulders. Yet one kept listing Chinese-language meme coins, while the other listed just one in 20 months. There’s no such restriction in the agreement; it looks more like OKX tightened its own standards.
🐋 What Lao Xu said
The “OKB, can’t talk about it” line mentioned in the post comes from a video posted by @Wangduanniao on October 9. It was recorded at a dinner OKX hosted for KOLs during Singapore 2049.
https://x.com/Wangduanniao/status/2108528434184134992
Someone asked, “What do you think of OKB?” Lao Xu @star_okx replied: “I can’t say. I’m not allowed to say. Can’t say, right? Also, it doesn’t align with our values.”
He then pivoted to Bitcoin, saying it is the value anchor of blockchain, like gold—a kind of anchor for the global economy.
There was also this line later: “Because I can’t give any other advice.”
He didn’t say who wasn’t letting him talk.
My take on the “doesn’t align with our values” part: when an exchange CEO publicly comments on their own platform token, it can easily be taken as a shill.
🐋 February 2027
As yesterday’s piece put it, what everyone’s holding is an option. February 2027 gives it a new expiration date, and another reason to keep waiting.
But judging from the announcements, OKX’s own standards determine whether it lists meme coins. Those standards may not change when the adviser’s term ends.
Don't trust, verify!
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This article was first published on X @musinoot