Ripple and Circle backs OKX as it targets the next wave of stablecoin users

OKX brought Circle, Ripple and Standard Chartered’s venture arm onto its cap table as the crypto exchange broadens its push into stablecoin-based financial services.

On Oct. 6, the exchange's Chief Executive Officer, Star Xu, confirmed that the company completed a strategic investment from Circle, Qube Research & Technologies, Ripple and SC Ventures by Standard Chartered at a $25 billion pre-money valuation, extending a March round led by Intercontinental Exchange, the owner of the New York Stock Exchange. OKX did not disclose how much it raised in the latest transaction.

The valuation was unchanged from March, when ICE invested about $200 million. The new round instead adds shareholders whose businesses overlap with OKX’s expansion into stablecoins, payments, institutional liquidity and tokenized assets.

Xu said the exchange chose the new investors for their strategic fit rather than because it needed additional financing, pointing to its longer-term ambitions across payments and financial infrastructure.

He stated:

“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.”

The investor lineup gives OKX closer ties to companies already supplying infrastructure across its platform.

Circle issues USDC, which is integrated across OKX. Ripple’s RLUSD stablecoin is available through the exchange’s unified order book, while QRT is a major institutional counterparty that provides liquidity and risk capacity. Standard Chartered, meanwhile, acts as custodian for BlackRock’s BUIDL tokenized Treasury fund used in an institutional collateral framework developed with OKX.

Those relationships make the fundraising more than a conventional capital injection. Ripple said the investment could deepen cooperation with OKX across stablecoins, payments and institutional markets, while Circle CEO Jeremy Allaire described the transaction as an extension of the companies’ existing relationship around USDC and onchain market infrastructure.

QRT’s participation adds an institutional trading component. The quantitative investment manager already works with OKX on liquidity and new markets, while SC Ventures gives the exchange another link to a global bank as crypto companies compete to bring traditional financial assets and payment flows onto blockchain networks.