OKX Shark Fin protects your principal only if you hold it to maturity

When does OKX Shark Fin not return your full principal?

Only one path in the terms returns your full amount and pays a yield at the annualized rate: hold to the expiry date and let OKX settle under the settlement rules. Section 4.4 of OKX's Shark Fin product terms (global version) says that at maturity, whether the settlement price lands inside or outside the range, the investment amount is returned in full in the investment currency and is not converted into any other coin. Leaving early, the product being terminated early and something going wrong at OKX itself all fall outside that protection.

Situation	What the terms say	How much principal comes back
Held to the expiry date and settled normally	Section 4.4: the full investment amount is paid, plus yield at the applicable annualized rate	The full investment amount, in the original currency
You request early termination before expiry and OKX agrees	Section 4.7: OKX, as calculation agent, sets the settlement amount at market value at the time of termination	Market value, possibly far below the investment amount
OKX terminates the product	Section 4.9: where OKX terminates because of regulatory requirements, force majeure or market disruption, a settlement price disruption that runs past the maximum delay period, or because it considers termination necessary, principal is returned at market value	Market value, possibly below the investment amount
The order terms contain a manifest error and OKX cancels the product	Section 4.9: the subscription amount is returned in the subscription currency	The subscription amount, returned as it was
OKX itself is unable to perform	Section 5.2: the principal protection does not cover counterparty risk	Not guaranteed by the terms

Getting your principal back doesn't mean you earned anything. The last sentence of the principal protection item in Section 5.2 says the principal protection feature doesn't guarantee any minimum return, and the base APR that applies outside the range is defined in the terms as something that can be zero. Shark Fin and Dual Investment both sit among OKX's structured products; how they differ on principal is covered in a section of Why the highest-APY pools deserve the most caution.

The terms apply principal protection at maturity only

Section 1.1 of the terms opens by calling Shark Fin a “principal guaranteed structured investment product”, and the definitions and Section 4.1 describe it as “principal-protected”.

What that protection covers is set out in item (1) of Section 5.2, headed “Principal Protection - at Maturity Only”. It says the product is designed to return the full investment amount on the expiry date, but that the principal protection applies only at contract maturity: it doesn't apply when you request early termination, and it doesn't protect you against OKX being unable to perform.

So even for a product described as principal-protected, the protection is tied to the moment the contract matures. Money you take out after subscribing and before maturity is still settled at market value.

Early termination: how to request it and what price you get

Shark Fin has no redeem-anytime option. Section 4.7 says OKX is under no obligation to agree to early termination and you have no right to demand early redemption; Section 5.2 adds that the product has no secondary market and can't be transferred or sold to any third party. If you want your money back before expiry, early termination is the only route left, and it works like this:

1. Before the expiry date, submit a written request through the communication channel set out in the order terms, or another channel agreed separately with OKX.
2. OKX decides at its own discretion whether to accept. If it doesn't, the product runs on to the expiry date.
3. If it does, OKX gives you an indicative termination price before executing.
4. OKX executes only once you confirm acceptance in writing; after that confirmation the termination can't be reversed.

The settlement amount is set by OKX, acting as calculation agent, at market value at the time of termination. The factors the terms list include the time remaining to maturity, the current price of the underlying, implied volatility and any applicable termination costs. Whether you'll get back less than you put in, and how much less, you only know once the indicative price is in front of you.

When the indicative termination price arrives, work out the gap between it and your investment amount before deciding whether to sign the confirmation. Under the terms, execution depends on your written confirmation; without it, the termination doesn't happen. Note too that once the subscription completes, the investment amount has already been paid to OKX, and even before the interest start date that money can't be used for any other investment or trade (item (3) of Section 5.2). Don't put in money you'll need before expiry.

Yield when the settlement price lands outside the range

Only the base APR. The expiry time is 16:00 (UTC+8) on the expiry date, and the settlement price is the average of the underlying index price on the OKX platform over the half hour from 15:30 to 16:00; prices on third-party exchanges aren't counted. If that average is below the lower bound or above the upper bound, the terms call it an out-of-range scenario, and the applicable APR is the base APR either way.

The order terms list three annualized rates separately: base, minimum and maximum (Section 4.2). The base APR applies only out of range, and the terms say it can be zero. The minimum and maximum APRs are the two ends of the range: when the settlement price lands inside it, the APR moves linearly between them according to where the price sits. Bullish and bearish products pay the higher rate at opposite ends:

Settlement price at expiry	Bullish product	Bearish product
Below the lower bound	Base APR	Base APR
At the lower bound	Minimum APR	Maximum APR
Between the bounds	Higher the closer it is to the upper bound	Higher the closer it is to the lower bound
At the upper bound	Maximum APR	Minimum APR
Above the upper bound	Base APR	Base APR

With a bullish Shark Fin, a bigger price rise isn't always better. A settlement price sitting right on the upper bound earns the maximum APR, but go a little higher and it drops out of the range, so the yield falls back to the base APR; a bearish product has the same cliff on the lower-bound side. All three APRs are fixed when the order is accepted and don't change during the term, except in cases such as forks, delistings and terminations under Sections 4.8 and 4.9. Section 5.2 also warns that you shouldn't subscribe on the assumption that you'll receive the maximum APR.

Whether the price ends inside or outside the range, your investment currency isn't converted into another coin at settlement (Section 4.4). That's where it differs from Dual Investment, where reaching the target price means your coins are converted into the other currency at that price; the mechanics are in Is Dual Investment a high-yield trap: how the returns work.

A worked example: 1,000 USDT held to expiry

The prices and APRs below are round numbers invented to show how the formulas work and have nothing to do with the rates on any actual OKX product.

• Investment: 1,000 USDT, bullish
• Initial reference price 100,000; lower bound at 95% and upper bound at 105%, giving a lower bound of 95,000 and an upper bound of 105,000
• Base APR 1%, minimum APR 3%, maximum APR 9%
• Term of 10 days (counted from the interest start date to the expiry date, both inclusive)

The two formulas in Section 4.5:

• Applicable APR in range for a bullish product = minimum APR + (settlement price − lower bound) ÷ (upper bound − lower bound) × (maximum APR − minimum APR)
• Yield = investment amount × (applicable APR ÷ 100) ÷ 365 × number of days in the term

Settlement price at expiry	Where it lands	Applicable APR (%)	10-day yield	Settlement amount
94,000	Below the lower bound	1 (base APR)	1,000 × 1 ÷ 100 ÷ 365 × 10 ≈ 0.27 USDT	About 1,000.27 USDT
95,000	At the lower bound	3 (minimum APR)	≈ 0.82 USDT	About 1,000.82 USDT
101,000	In range	3 + (6,000 ÷ 10,000) × 6 = 6.6	1,000 × 6.6 ÷ 100 ÷ 365 × 10 ≈ 1.81 USDT	About 1,001.81 USDT
105,000	At the upper bound	9 (maximum APR)	≈ 2.47 USDT	About 1,002.47 USDT
106,000	Above the upper bound	1 (base APR)	≈ 0.27 USDT	About 1,000.27 USDT

Put the same numbers through a bearish product and the position is measured back from the upper bound instead: at a settlement price of 101,000, (105,000 − 101,000) ÷ 10,000 = 0.4, so the applicable APR is 3 + 0.4 × 6 = 5.4% and the 10-day yield is about 1.48 USDT. On the bullish side, another 1,000 of upside, from 105,000 to 106,000, cuts the yield from about 2.47 USDT to about 0.27 USDT; if the base APR were zero, that tier would pay nothing and the settlement amount would be exactly 1,000 USDT.

The interest start date can also drag your real return down. Suppose you subscribe 2 days before the interest start date: your money is tied up for 12 days, but yield is still counted on 10. Taking the in-range row, 1.81 ÷ 1,000 × 365 ÷ 12 ≈ 5.5%, below the 6.6% worked out on 10 days. The terms list this gap as a risk of its own (item (6) of Section 5.2).

The settlement amount (principal plus yield) is credited to your OKX funding account on the expiry date; the latest the terms allow is within 2 business days after the expiry date, and settlement disruptions covered by the master agreement are handled under that agreement instead.

What to check in the order terms before you subscribe

Every subscription has its own order terms, which can come as a written term sheet, the order confirmation in the app, or another form OKX provides (Section 4.2). Before you confirm, check each of these one by one:

• Underlying index: the settlement price is calculated from it.
• Direction: bullish or bearish, which decides whether the upper or the lower bound pays the most.
• Investment amount and investment currency: settlement at maturity is paid in this currency too.
• Upper and lower bounds: given as percentages of the initial reference price, or written as absolute prices where they can already be fixed at subscription. The initial reference price isn't set until the interest start date, so at the moment you subscribe, the actual bound prices may not exist yet.
• The base, minimum and maximum APRs.
• The expiry date; if the expiry time isn't 16:00 (UTC+8), it will be stated separately.
• The interest start date (where it isn't the same day as subscription), and the term used to calculate the yield.

If any of these is missing from the confirmation, hold off on subscribing and ask through OKX's Support Center first.

If you can't find Shark Fin in the app at all, the terms may explain why: access to the services and to individual products may be subject to OKX's internal approval or restrictions, and both your account type and your jurisdiction can affect whether you can use them (Section 2.1).

With auto-renewal on, your principal rolls straight into the next round

Auto-renewal is off by default and isn't available to every user. Once it's on, when the first round matures your principal is automatically invested in a next-round Shark Fin with the same direction, the same bound percentages and the same reference asset; the yield is paid out separately on each expiry date and isn't rolled in. The next round's APR is whatever that round's product pays, and the terms say it will differ from the round that just matured.

OKX has no obligation to remind you before a renewal happens. If you want the principal back in your funding account, switch off auto-renewal before the cutoff time OKX announces for that round. If there's no eligible next-round product, or the renewal subscription is rejected, the principal goes back to your funding account.