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Key Takeaways
- The new round extends a March investment led by Intercontinental Exchange at the same $25 billion pre-money valuation, and the amount raised was not disclosed.
- OKXICE, a joint venture with ICE, filed to offer round-the-clock trading of tokenized shares of 63 U.S. companies settled in stablecoins.
- Macquarie expects early adoption to lean toward retail investors, noting the SEC’s five-year exemption may make institutions hesitant.
Crypto exchange OKX secured fresh investment from Circle, Ripple, quantitative trading firm Qube Research & Technologies and Standard Chartered’s venture arm SC Ventures, as the company works to transform from a crypto trading venue into a broader financial technology platform spanning payments and tokenized traditional assets. OKX did not disclose the amount raised.
An Extension of an Earlier ICE-Led Investment
The new financing extends an investment OKX received in March from Intercontinental Exchange, the parent company of the New York Stock Exchange. Like that earlier round, the latest investment values OKX at $25 billion on a pre-money basis, meaning the valuation reflects the company before the new capital is added.
OKX founder and CEO Star Xu framed the expansion as a deliberate shift beyond the company’s original business.
“The exchange was our starting point, and we are evolving into a broader platform.”
The company has said its goal is to let customers hold, spend, invest and grow their money within a single platform, rather than relying on separate services for trading, payments and traditional investment products.
Part of a Broader Shift Among Crypto Exchanges
OKX’s repositioning reflects a pattern playing out across the crypto exchange industry, where companies built around cryptocurrency trading are increasingly expanding into payments, stablecoins, equities, derivatives and tokenized real-world assets rather than remaining focused on crypto trading alone.
Kraken parent Payward has pursued a similar strategy, building out banking, asset management and business-to-business infrastructure services alongside its exchange business.
A Joint Venture Pushing Into Tokenized U.S. Stocks
OKX’s relationship with ICE extends into traditional securities markets directly. A joint venture between the two companies, OKXICE, filed this week to introduce round-the-clock tokenized stock trading under a framework the SEC introduced last month allowing eligible platforms to trade tokenized U.S. equities for a five-year trial period.
OKXICE plans to offer continuous trading in tokenized shares of 63 U.S. companies using OKX’s X Layer blockchain, settling trades using stablecoins including USDC, USDT and USDG.
The tokenized shares would retain dividend and voting rights matching the underlying stock, consistent with the SEC framework’s requirements for genuine ownership rather than synthetic price exposure.
Analysts Flag Early Hurdles for Institutional Adoption
Investment bank Macquarie said in a report this week that adoption of the OKXICE platform will depend on attracting enough companies, investors, and liquidity providers to keep prices reliable around the clock.
Macquarie also noted that the temporary, five-year nature of the SEC’s exemption could make institutions hesitant to invest in connecting their own systems to the platform before knowing whether the regulatory framework will become permanent. A separate note from TD Securities raised similar concerns earlier this week.
Macquarie said it expects early adoption to lean toward retail investors, since institutions already have efficient access to U.S.-listed stocks through existing channels and face higher regulatory and technical costs to adopt a new platform.
The firm said the venture could still serve as a meaningful test of stablecoins functioning as a settlement tool for regulated securities markets, beyond their existing use in crypto trading specifically.
Investors With Direct Stakes in OKX’s Strategy
OKX’s new investors each have a direct connection to the company’s expansion plans. Circle issues USDC, one of the stablecoins OKXICE plans to use for settlement. Ripple provides payments infrastructure and issues its own RLUSD stablecoin.
Standard Chartered serves as custodian for BlackRock’s tokenized Treasury fund, BUIDL, under a collateral arrangement involving OKX and BlackRock. Qube Research & Technologies acts as an institutional trading counterparty for OKX, providing liquidity and trading capacity.
