Crypto Heavyweights Back OKX at $25B Valuation

OKX raised new funding at a $25 billion valuation, with Circle (NYSE: $CRCL), Ripple and Standard Chartered's investment arm SC Ventures all taking part, Bloomberg reported Tuesday, citing a company statement.

The round extends a previous round the crypto exchange closed in March, when Intercontinental Exchange (NYSE: $ICE), the parent company of the New York Stock Exchange, invested roughly $200 million in OKX at the same valuation. London-based quantitative hedge fund Qube Research & Technologies joined as a new investor in the latest round.

OKX global managing partner Haider Rafique said the new capital focuses on strengthening the exchange's long-term market infrastructure.

OKX founder and CEO Star framed the raise as a choice for long-term strategic partners rather than a need for cash, welcoming Circle, Ripple and SC Ventures as investors aligned with OKX's vision across stablecoins, payments, institutional markets and next-generation financial infrastructure.

OKX's native token, OKB (CRYPTO: $OKX), rose about 6% to $138 following the announcement.

The fundraise builds on OKX's expanding work with ICE. The two companies are developing a joint venture, OKX ICE, aimed at using the SEC's innovation exemption framework to tokenize and trade shares of 63 U.S.-listed companies, including Nvidia (NASDAQ: $NVDA), Apple (NASDAQ: $AAPL) and Coca-Cola (NYSE: $KO). OKX's trading products team separately reported that average daily trading volume across tokenized stocks and other real-world-asset markets has reached $3 billion.