OKX has secured a new round of investment at a $25 billion pre-money valuation, with contributions from Circle, Ripple, Standard Chartered’s venture arm, and trading firm Qube Research. The exact amount raised was not disclosed. This funding follows a March investment from Intercontinental Exchange (ICE), owner of the New York Stock Exchange, also at the same valuation.
The backing from Circle, Ripple, Standard Chartered, and Qube Research is significant, as these entities either compete with OKX or already do business with it. Circle issues USDC, Ripple runs payments and issues RLUSD, Standard Chartered holds assets behind BlackRock’s tokenized Treasury fund, and Qube is an existing OKX client. OKX CEO Star Xu emphasizes the strategy of integrating with these partners rather than building these components in-house.
OKX is expanding beyond its exchange roots to become a comprehensive financial technology platform where customers can hold, spend, invest, and grow money. The company recently filed to launch round-the-clock trading in tokenized shares of 63 U.S. companies, settled with stablecoins. Additionally, OKX launched a consumer app offering 10% returns on dollar stablecoins, with AI handling roughly 95% of the company’s code at a cost of $10 million monthly.
However, the success of tokenized stocks remains uncertain. Analysts like Macquarie highlight the need for sufficient liquidity to maintain reliable pricing, especially outside regular trading hours. Both Macquarie and TD Securities expect early demand to come from retail investors rather than institutions, which already have affordable access to U.S. stocks.