Setting Up OpenClaw with OKX (and Why the Passphrase Trips Everyone Up)

Why I’m Writing This (the Short Version)

I spent about two hours stuck on a connection error when I first tried to hook up OpenClaw to OKX. The error message was cryptic. The fix was embarrassingly simple: I forgot to pass my passphrase.

If you’re coming from Binance, this will trip you up too. Binance gives you two credentials (API key + secret). OKX gives you three: API key, secret, and a passphrase. Miss that third one and nothing works, but the error message won’t tell you that directly.

This tutorial walks through the entire process so you don’t waste the same two hours I did.

Prerequisites

Before we start, make sure you have:

• An OKX account with identity verification complete (at least Level 1 KYC). You can’t create API keys without it.
• OpenClaw installed and running. If you haven’t done this yet, follow the OpenClaw DCA tutorial up through Step 1, then come back here.
• A funded OKX account — even a small amount like $10 in USDT is enough for testing.

You do NOT need coding experience. This entire setup happens through the OKX web interface and the OpenClaw dashboard.

Step 1: Create Your OKX API Key

Log into your OKX account on the web (not the mobile app — the API management page is easier to navigate on desktop).

1. Click your profile icon in the top-right corner
2. Go to API Keys (under the “Security” or “Account” section, depending on your region)
3. Click Create API Key
4. Choose “For personal use” (not “For third-party app”)

You’ll see a form with several fields. Here’s what to fill in:

API Key Label

Name it something descriptive. I used openclaw-trading. This is just for your reference — OKX lets you create multiple API keys, and the label helps you remember which is which.

Passphrase

This is the field that doesn’t exist on Binance or Bybit. OKX requires you to create a passphrase when generating an API key.

Why does OKX have a passphrase?

It’s an extra security layer. On Binance, if someone gets your API key and secret, they can place trades on your behalf. On OKX, they’d also need the passphrase. Think of it like two-factor authentication for your API access — the key and secret prove your identity, and the passphrase acts as a secondary verification that gets sent with every API request.

The passphrase can be any string between 8 and 32 characters. A few rules:

• It must contain letters AND numbers
• Special characters are allowed but not required
• Write it down immediately. OKX will NOT show it to you again after creation. If you lose it, you’ll need to delete the API key and create a new one.

I’d recommend something memorable but not reused from other services. Don’t use your OKX account password.

Permissions

This is where OKX’s permission system differs significantly from Binance. OKX gives you granular control (see the full details in the OKX API documentation):

Only enable Read and Trade. I cannot stress this enough: never give a bot withdrawal permissions. If your API key is ever compromised, the worst an attacker can do is make trades — they can’t drain your account.

IP Restriction (Optional but Recommended)

OKX lets you restrict API keys to specific IP addresses. If you’re running OpenClaw on a machine with a static IP address, add it here. This means even if someone steals all three of your credentials, they can’t use them from a different IP.

If you’re on a home connection with a dynamic IP, skip this for now. You can always add it later.

Save Your Credentials

After clicking Confirm, OKX will show you three things:

1. API Key — a string like a1b2c3d4-e5f6-7890-abcd-ef1234567890
2. Secret Key — a longer alphanumeric string
3. Passphrase — the one you just created

Copy all three right now. The secret key is only shown once. The passphrase is the one you set, so you should already have it written down, but double-check it matches.

I keep mine in a password manager (1Password / Bitwarden / KeePass — whatever you use). Don’t put them in a text file on your desktop. Don’t screenshot them. Don’t email them to yourself.

Step 2: Add Credentials to OpenClaw

Navigate to your OpenClaw home directory. By default, this is ~/.openclaw/ on Mac/Linux or %USERPROFILE%\.openclaw\ on Windows.

Open (or create) the .env file:

# Open the .env file in your OpenClaw directory
nano ~/.openclaw/.env

Add your OKX credentials:

# OKX API Credentials
OKX_API_KEY=a1b2c3d4-e5f6-7890-abcd-ef1234567890
OKX_API_SECRET=YOUR_SECRET_KEY_HERE
OKX_PASSPHRASE=YOUR_PASSPHRASE_HERE

The Mistake Everyone Makes

Here’s where I lost two hours. If you’re coming from Binance, your .env probably looks like this:

# Binance (only 2 credentials)
BINANCE_API_KEY=your_key
BINANCE_API_SECRET=your_secret

Two credentials. Simple. So when I set up OKX, I did this:

# WRONG -- missing the passphrase!
OKX_API_KEY=my_key
OKX_API_SECRET=my_secret

And then wondered why OpenClaw kept throwing authentication errors. The fix is obvious in hindsight: OKX requires all three. Without OKX_PASSPHRASE, the API call fails because OKX’s server expects the passphrase header in every request.

Make sure your .env has all three lines for OKX. If you’re only using OKX (not Binance), you can remove the Binance lines entirely.

Save the file and restart the OpenClaw daemon to pick up the new environment variables:

openclaw daemon restart

Step 3: Understand OKX Account Types (This Matters)

Before we test the connection, you need to know about OKX’s account structure, because it affects how OpenClaw places orders.

OKX has two account modes:

Unified Account (Default for New Users)

If you created your OKX account after 2022, you almost certainly have a unified trading account. This means all your assets (spot, margin, futures, options) live in one pool. When OpenClaw places a spot order, it’s using funds from this unified pool.

Classic Account

Older OKX accounts may still have the classic structure with separate sub-accounts for spot, margin, funding, etc. If you have a classic account, you need to make sure your funds are in the trading account (not the funding account) before OpenClaw can use them.

To check which type you have: go to Assets on OKX. If you see a single “Trading Account” balance, you’re on unified. If you see separate “Funding Account” and “Trading Account” sections, you’re on classic.

Why this matters for OpenClaw: When you tell OpenClaw to “buy BTC with USDT,” it needs the USDT to be accessible for spot trading. On a unified account, it always is. On a classic account, you might need to transfer from your funding account first.

If you’re on a classic account, you can tell OpenClaw:

Transfer $100 USDT from my OKX funding account to my trading account

Or just do it manually through the OKX web interface under Assets > Transfer.

Trading Modes on OKX

OKX unified accounts also have a trading mode setting that affects how margin and leverage work. For spot-only trading with OpenClaw (which is what I recommend for beginners), make sure your account is set to Simple or Single-currency margin mode.

You can check this at Settings > Trading Settings > Account Mode on OKX.

If your account mode is set to Multi-currency margin or Portfolio margin, OpenClaw will still work for spot orders, but the way balances are calculated is more complex. Stick with Simple mode unless you know what you’re doing.

Step 4: Verify the Connection

Open the OpenClaw dashboard:

openclaw dashboard

In the chat interface, type:

Check my OKX connection status

If everything is configured correctly, you’ll see something like:

OKX Connection: Active
Account Type: Unified
Trading Mode: Simple
Available Balance: 150.00 USDT, 0.002 BTC, ...
API Permissions: Read, Trade

If you see an error instead, jump to the troubleshooting section below.

A Quick Sanity Check

Before running any real strategy, let’s make sure the API key actually has the right permissions. Ask OpenClaw:

Show me my OKX open orders

Even if you have no open orders, this request exercises the Read permission. If it returns an empty list (rather than an error), your Read access is working.

Then try:

What's the current price of BTC/USDT on OKX?

This doesn’t require authentication at all (it’s public market data), but it confirms OpenClaw’s OKX integration is functioning end-to-end.

Step 5: Your First Test Trade

I always recommend starting with the smallest possible trade to confirm everything works before trusting the system with real money.

Type this into the OpenClaw dashboard:

Buy $1 of BTC/USDT on OKX using a market order

OpenClaw will show you a confirmation:

I'll place the following order:

- Exchange: OKX (Spot)
- Action: Buy BTC/USDT
- Amount: ~$1.00 (market order)
- Estimated BTC: ~0.00001 BTC (at current price)

Proceed? (yes/no)

Type yes. After a few seconds, you should see a confirmation with the fill price and amount.

Check it on OKX: Go to Trade > Order History on the OKX website and verify the order appears there. It should show as a filled market buy for approximately $1 worth of BTC.

If this works, your setup is complete. OpenClaw can read your account, connect to OKX’s APIs, and execute trades.

Why Start with $1?

Because things go wrong, and you want them to go wrong with $1, not $1,000. On my first test, I accidentally placed an order on the wrong pair (ETH instead of BTC) because I had a typo in my prompt. A $1 mistake I can laugh about. A $1,000 mistake… less funny.

Step 6: OKX-Specific Settings Worth Knowing

A few OKX quirks I’ve learned the hard way:

Minimum Order Sizes

OKX has minimum order sizes that vary by pair. For BTC/USDT, the minimum is typically around 0.00001 BTC (roughly $1 at current prices). For some altcoin pairs, the minimums are higher. If OpenClaw tries to place an order below the minimum, OKX will reject it.

You can ask OpenClaw:

What's the minimum order size for BTC/USDT on OKX?

Fee Structure

OKX uses a maker/taker fee model. As of writing:

Market orders are always taker fees. Limit orders that add liquidity to the order book pay maker fees. If you’re running a strategy with thin margins (like grid trading), these fees matter more than you’d think.

Rate Limits

OKX limits how many API calls you can make per second. For most users, this won’t be an issue — OpenClaw is smart about batching requests. But if you’re running multiple strategies simultaneously, you might hit rate limits. The symptom is intermittent errors that go away on their own.

If you hit rate limits, ask OpenClaw:

Reduce the polling frequency for my OKX strategies to once every 5 seconds

Troubleshooting Common Errors

Here’s every error I’ve encountered (or seen others encounter) when connecting OpenClaw to OKX, and how to fix each one:

The Nuclear Option

If nothing works and you’ve verified your credentials three times, try this:

1. Delete the API key on OKX
2. Create a brand new one (new key, new secret, new passphrase)
3. Update all three values in your .env
4. Restart the OpenClaw daemon: openclaw daemon restart

I’ve had to do this once when I got stuck in a loop of “Invalid sign” errors. I’m still not sure what went wrong with the original key, but starting fresh fixed it instantly.

Should You Use OKX or Binance with OpenClaw?

I get asked this a lot, so here’s my honest take:

Use whichever exchange you already have an account on.

That’s it. That’s the answer. If you already have a verified Binance account with funds on it, use Binance. If you already have OKX, use OKX. The differences for basic strategies (DCA, simple grid trading, rebalancing) are negligible.

Here’s a comparison if you’re genuinely deciding between the two:

The fee difference (0.02% on maker orders) is real but tiny. On a $50 trade, that’s $0.01. You’d need to be trading serious volume for it to matter.

My actual recommendation: If you’re in the US, your options are constrained by regulation regardless. Use whatever is legally available to you. If you’re outside the US, pick whichever exchange has the fiat on-ramp (bank deposit) that works smoothest in your country. The exchange-to-OpenClaw connection works the same either way.

What’s Next

Now that your OKX connection is working, you’re ready to set up actual strategies:

• Start with DCA: Follow the OpenClaw BTC DCA tutorial — it works identically on OKX
• Try grid trading: Check out the OpenClaw grid trading guide for a sideways-market strategy
• Explore more: Ask OpenClaw “What strategies can you run on OKX?” to see what’s available

The hardest part is behind you. The passphrase thing is a one-time headache, and once your .env is set up correctly, you won’t think about it again.