ICP bought on OKX cannot be directly converted into Cycles and stored. You first need to withdraw ICP to an identity or account you control, then burn and mint Cycles through the Cycles Minting Canister (CMC), and finally deposit them into the target canister. ICP and Cycles are not on the same level—ICP is a token that can be bought and sold on exchanges, while Cycles are the "fuel" used only to pay for canister computation and storage resources. The conversion between them is one-way.
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First Understand the Pricing Logic of Cycles
The price of Cycles is pegged to XDR (the IMF's basket of currencies). 1 trillion Cycles = 1 XDR, which is about 1.3 to 1.4 US dollars. This peg means that the operating cost of a canister does not fluctuate with the market price of the ICP token. The CMC samples the ICP/XDR exchange rate from the exchange rate canister every 5 minutes to determine how many Cycles you get for the ICP you pay.
When you actually make the exchange, the rate for burning ICP to mint Cycles is 1 trillion Cycles per 1 XDR. Exchanging directly on the NNS frontend or ecosystem platforms like Sonic or ICPSwap may give you a price slightly lower than 1 XDR, which is equivalent to a small discount.
Withdraw ICP from OKX to Your Identity Account
OKX has supported ICP deposits and withdrawals since May 2021. Before withdrawing, make sure you have an address that can receive ICP.
If you use dfx for development, first get your ledger account ID: run the command dfx ledger account-id. This command outputs a 64-character hexadecimal address. Fill this address into the withdrawal address field on OKX, and select the ICP mainnet as the network. ICP withdrawals usually take some time to confirm. After the funds arrive, you can check your balance locally by running dfx ledger --network ic balance.
If you do not have a developer identity yet, first create one with dfx identity new , then switch to it with dfx identity use, and then get the account ID.
Convert ICP to Cycles Using dfx
After the ICP arrives, the conversion command is: dfx cycles convert --network ic --amount
This command burns the specified amount of ICP to mint Cycles and deposits them into your cycles ledger account (not directly into a canister). The default fee is 10000 e8s, which is 0.0001 ICP.
After the conversion is complete, your identity will have the corresponding Cycles balance. This balance can be used to create new canisters or top up existing canisters.
Top Up a Canister with Cycles
If you already have a canister, use dfx cycles top-up: dfx cycles top-up
For example, to top up 1 trillion Cycles: dfx cycles top-up jqylk-byaaa-aaaal-qbymq-cai 1T --network ic
You can also do this through the NNS frontend Dapp: go to the "My Canisters" section, click "Link Canister" to add the principal of the target canister (you do not need to be its controller), and then click "Add cycles" to top it up from your NNS balance.
Anyone can top up any canister as long as they know its principal. The top-up operation itself does not require you to be the owner or controller of the canister.
Deployment Budget: How Many Cycles Do You Need
Creating a canister itself consumes 500 billion Cycles (about 0.65 US dollars). The default initial balance when creating a canister is 2 trillion Cycles.
The official pre-deployment recommendation is: prepare at least 2 to 5 trillion Cycles for each canister as starting funds. A simple backend canister with moderate traffic consumes about 0.1 to 0.5 trillion Cycles per month.
This means that if you are just running a simple personal project or demo, preparing 5 to 10 trillion Cycles can cover the creation cost and several months of operation. Based on the estimate of 1 trillion Cycles = 1 XDR and 1 XDR ≈ 1.35 US dollars, you need ICP worth about 7 to 14 US dollars.
If a canister's balance is exhausted, it will be deleted by the network. To prevent this, ICP provides a freezing_threshold mechanism that pauses canister execution when the balance falls below a set threshold, giving you time to top it up. You can also set up an automatic top-up service such as CycleOps to monitor and replenish Cycles.
An Easily Overlooked Detail
The ICP withdrawn from OKX is in your own identity account. The master key of this identity (mnemonic phrase or PEM file) is the only credential that controls it. If you lose the identity outside your local dfx environment, the ICP in the account cannot be accessed. Transfers on the ICP mainnet are irreversible, and no customer service can help you recover them.
Also, Cycles cannot be withdrawn back to ICP. Burning ICP to mint Cycles is one-way. Cycles can only be used to pay for network resources and cannot be converted back to ICP or fiat currency. Therefore, the amount of ICP you convert to Cycles should be based on your actual deployment budget. Do not burn all your ICP into Cycles at once.
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References
- Internet Computer Official Documentation - Cycles Concept Explanation, page publication or update date: not indicated; verification date: 2024-06-20.
- Internet Computer Official Documentation - Network Economics Concept Explanation, page publication or update date: not indicated; verification date: 2024-06-20.
- Internet Computer Developer Documentation - Gas Cost Explanation, page publication or update date: not indicated; verification date: 2024-06-20.
- Internet Computer Developer Documentation - Reverse Gas Mechanism Explanation, page publication or update date: not indicated; verification date: 2024-06-20.
- OKX Help Center - Announcement on OKX Being the First Global Launch of Internet Computer (ICP), page publication or update date: not indicated; verification date: 2024-06-20.
- Internet Computer Official Tutorial - Guide to Obtaining Cycles, page publication or update date: not indicated; verification date: 2024-06-20.
- Internet Computer Developer Tutorial - Using Cycles, page publication or update date: not indicated; verification date: 2024-06-20.
- Internet Computer Developer Documentation - dfx cycles Command Explanation, page publication or update date: not indicated; verification date: 2024-06-20.
- Internet Computer Official Documentation - Canister Topping Up Guide, page publication or update date: not indicated; verification date: 2024-06-20.
- Internet Computer Official Documentation - Canister Lifecycle Explanation, page publication or update date: not indicated; verification date: 2024-06-20.
- Internet Computer Official Documentation - Cycles Management Guide, page publication or update date: not indicated; verification date: 2024-06-20.
