OKX draws investment from StanChart, Circle, Ripple as it pushes beyond crypto exchange roots
The exchange is increasingly aiming to position itself as a global financial tech platform spanning crypto, payments and tokenized assets, following an investment and joint venture with NYSE parent ICE.
Crypto exchange OKX has secured fresh investment as it looks to transform itself from a venue for trading digital assets into a broader global financial technology platform spanning crypto, payments and traditional assets moving onto blockchain rails.
The new investors are Circle, Ripple, quantitative investment manager Qube Research & Technologies (QRT) and SC Ventures, the venture arm of Standard Chartered. OKX did not disclose the amount invested.
The financing is an extension of a March investment from Intercontinental Exchange (ICE), the owner of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE). Like the earlier deal, the latest investment values OKX at $25 billion on a pre-money basis.
“The exchange was our starting point, and we are evolving into a broader global financial technology platform,” OKX founder and CEO Star Xu said. The company says its goal is to let customers hold, spend, invest and grow their money from the same platform.
That ambition highlights a broader shift among crypto exchanges. Companies that built their businesses around cryptocurrency trading are increasingly trying to become one-stop financial platforms, expanding into payments, stablecoins, stocks, derivatives and tokenized real-world assets.
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OKX's relationship with ICE shows how that expansion is reaching traditional markets. An OKX-ICE joint venture filed this week to introduce tokenized stock trading under a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) framework, pushing the exchange toward a business traditionally dominated by brokerages and securities exchanges.
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 venue is an early test of the SEC’s new five-year tokenization framework, with shares retaining dividend and voting rights.
Whether that model attracts institutions remains an open question.
In a report on Tuesday, investment banking firm Macquarie said 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 also make institutions reluctant to spend money connecting their systems to the platform before they know whether the rules will last. TD Securities raised similar concerns in a Monday note.
Macquarie expects early adoption to lean toward retail investors because institutions already have efficient access to U.S.-listed stocks and face higher regulatory and technology hurdles. Still, the platform could provide another test of stablecoins as a settlement tool for regulated financial markets rather than just crypto trading.