OKX has completed a strategic investment from Circle Internet Group, Qube Research & Technologies (QRT), Ripple and Standard Chartered's SC Ventures at a $25 billion pre money valuation, as reported by Bloomberg. The transaction extends the funding round led by NYSE parent Intercontinental Exchange in March, which originally valued OKX at roughly $25 billion. The amount invested by the four companies and their individual stakes were not disclosed in the announcement. The capital raise was an extension from OKX's round in March, when NYSE parent Intercontinental Exchange invested about $200 million into the exchange at the same valuation. According to Bloomberg reports, the exchange's native token OKB surged double digits on the news, with OKB rising about 6% to $138 on the extension announcement, reflecting positive market sentiment around the strategic partnership. The latest funding round includes Qube Research & Technologies (QRT), a London quantitative hedge fund that is new to OKX's cap table, alongside the existing investors. The deal also gives the New York Stock Exchange owner a direct stake in one of the world's largest crypto exchanges.
According to OKX founder and CEO Star Xu, the company is 'evolving into a broader global financial technology platform' as it moves beyond its crypto exchange roots. As reported by OKX, the company's goal is to let customers hold, spend, invest and grow their money from the same platform. This transformation represents a broader shift among crypto exchanges, with companies that built their businesses around cryptocurrency trading increasingly trying to become one-stop financial platforms, expanding into payments, stablecoins, stocks, derivatives and tokenized real-world assets. The funding round supports this strategic pivot, giving the company deeper ties to the infrastructure behind stablecoins, institutional trading, payments and tokenized assets and enabling its expansion into real-world asset tokenization and other onchain financial services. 'The money focuses on strengthening OKX's long-term market infrastructure,' said Haider Rafique, the exchange's global managing partner, according to Bloomberg. 'We didn't raise capital because we needed it. We chose to bring in strategic partners who share our long-term vision for stablecoins, payments, institutional markets, and the next generation of financial infrastructure,' Xu commented on the news.
On Monday, OKICE, the joint venture between OKX and Intercontinental Exchange ICE, filed with the SEC to launch a tokenized securities platform that traded 24/7, initially starting with more than 60 U.S.-listed companies. The companies are seeking approval to offer tokenized stocks representing 63 US public companies, including NVIDIA, Apple and Tesla, under the SEC's five-year innovation exemption. The exemption allows tokenized stocks to trade in the US if they provide rights equivalent to those of traditional shares, including dividends and voting. This development represents a significant expansion beyond traditional cryptocurrency trading into regulated financial markets, with OKX among the first to take advantage of the SEC's Innovation Exemption framework for tokenized securities trading. The offering would run under the Securities and Exchange Commission's innovation exemption, introduced in September days after the Clarity Act stalled in the Senate, covering only tokens carrying the same rights as ordinary shares, including dividends and voting. OKXICE plans to offer 24/7 trading in tokenized shares of 63 U.S. companies using OKX's X Layer blockchain and stablecoins, including USDC, USDT and USDG.
The institutional backing has significantly strengthened OKX's stablecoin infrastructure, with stablecoin balances climbing from approximately $3 billion to more than $11.5 billion since 2023. According to AMBCrypto, this growth demonstrates OKX's ability to build a substantial liquidity base that supports increased trading, payments, and institutional settlement capacity. The partnerships enable Circle to facilitate stablecoin use as a medium of exchange, Ripple to enable greater payment connectivity, and Standard Chartered's SC Ventures to connect OKX to banks and custodians. Each new partner brings specific capabilities to help OKX connect crypto with traditional finance more directly. The OKB token experienced a breakout rally after weeks of trading between $116 and $126.50, with the funding announcement triggering a breakout as buyers rushed through the $126.96 resistance level. The price advanced toward the old trading range ceiling at $143.50, though some early buyers took profits, causing the price to retreat to around $133 at press time. A close above the $130 level would allow OKB to attempt additional advances toward $136 and ultimately back to $143.50, while a break below $130 could result in a retreat toward the previous trading range of $126.50.
Investment banking firm Macquarie has raised concerns about early adoption of OKX's tokenized securities platform, with early demand expected to skew toward retail investors rather than institutions. According to Macquarie's Tuesday report, adoption will depend on OKXICE attracting enough companies, investors and liquidity providers to keep prices reliable around the clock. The temporary nature of the SEC exemption could make institutions reluctant to spend money connecting their systems to the platform before knowing whether the rules will last. TD Securities raised similar concerns in a Monday note, highlighting regulatory uncertainty and integration costs as key hurdles for institutional participation. Despite these challenges, the platform could provide another test of stablecoins as a settlement tool for regulated financial markets rather than just crypto trading, as stablecoins move into regulated finance with APAC becoming a key proving ground for these applications. The key test remains whether balances continue rising alongside transaction and payment activity, suggesting OKX is building recurring financial infrastructure rather than simply benefiting from capital movements.
