OKX Draws Circle, Ripple and Standard Chartered Backing at $25B Valuation
Crypto exchange OKX has announced new funding at a $25 billion valuation, drawing investments from key digital asset players like Circle, Ripple, and SC Ventures. This strategic capital aims to advance OKX's vision for tokenizing real-world assets and establishing onchain markets, reflecting Wall Street's growing interest in blockchain technology.
Crypto exchange OKX has secured strategic investment at a $25 billion pre-money valuation, attracting backing from stablecoin issuer Circle, payments and blockchain company Ripple, quantitative investment firm Qube Research & Technologies (QRT), and SC Ventures, the investment arm of Standard Chartered. The amount raised in the latest funding round was not disclosed, but OKX said the deal extends the strategic investment led by Intercontinental Exchange (ICE), the parent company of the New York Stock Exchange, in March.
OKX said the new investors deepen relationships across key areas of its financial infrastructure, including stablecoins, liquidity, collateral and institutional custody. The funding comes as OKX expands beyond cryptocurrency trading and moves further into tokenised financial assets and onchain markets. Its 50-50 joint venture with ICE, OKXICE, has notified the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission of plans to establish a tokenised securities trading venue offering 24-hour trading in tokenised U.S. stocks, with an initial list of 63 companies.
The filing follows the SEC’s September 17, 2026 introduction of a five-year innovation exemption for certain tokenised-stock trading platforms, while OKX CEO and founder Star Xu said the new capital would support the company’s plans to tokenise real-world assets and evolve from an exchange into a broader financial technology platform.
The latest investment reflects the growing overlap between traditional finance and digital-asset infrastructure, with major financial institutions increasingly involved in stablecoins, custody and tokenisation. Circle’s USDC is integrated into OKX, Ripple’s RLUSD is available on its unified order book, while Standard Chartered provides custody for BlackRock’s BUIDL tokenised Treasury fund, which forms part of an OKX institutional collateral framework.
With ICE already an investor and the OKXICE venture pursuing a regulated route into tokenised equities, the latest funding gives OKX additional strategic relationships as it attempts to build infrastructure that connects crypto markets with conventional financial assets.