OKX has closed a strategic investment from Circle, Ripple, Qube Research & Technologies and SC Ventures, the venture arm of Standard Chartered, at a $25 billion pre-money valuation, CEO Star Xu confirmed on Oct. 6. The exchange did not disclose the amount raised in the transaction.

The round extends a March investment led by Intercontinental Exchange, the owner of the New York Stock Exchange, which put roughly $200 million into the company at the same valuation. Seven months on, the price is unchanged — a signal that OKX prioritized the identity of its shareholders over fresh capital.

"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," Xu said.

Why did OKX add stablecoin issuers to its cap table?

Each new investor already supplies infrastructure that OKX depends on. Circle issues USDC, which is integrated across the exchange's platform. Ripple's RLUSD stablecoin trades through OKX's unified order book. QRT, a quantitative investment manager, is a major institutional counterparty providing liquidity and risk capacity. Standard Chartered acts as custodian for BlackRock's BUIDL tokenized Treasury fund, used in an institutional collateral framework developed with OKX.

Ripple said the investment could deepen cooperation with OKX across stablecoins, payments and institutional markets. Circle CEO Jeremy Allaire described the deal as an extension of the companies' existing relationship around USDC and on-chain market infrastructure.

The composition of the round explains why OKX accepted new money without a valuation uplift. The company is effectively adding partners positioned across several layers of the financial stack it intends to build: stablecoin issuance, custody, institutional liquidity and payments.

What is OKX Money?

The expansion moved into consumer payments on Tuesday with the launch of OKX Money, a standalone app that lets users save, send and spend dollar-backed stablecoins. Customers in participating markets can fund accounts with more than 50 supported currencies and hold USDG, USDC or USDT.

The app combines stablecoin balances with global transfers and virtual or physical cards. OKX says it charges no foreign-exchange fee or conversion markup on purchases made in another currency.

Key features include:

• Up to 10% annual yield on qualifying USDG balances, with no staking or lockups
• Up to 10% cashback on eligible card purchases through a loyalty program
• Availability, rates and features that vary by market and customer eligibility

The target market reaches well beyond the exchange's existing base. OKX said roughly 70% of the people it aims to reach through Money have never used a crypto application, which prompted the company to keep the underlying blockchain infrastructure largely invisible in the user experience.

Can an exchange win non-crypto users?

The launch puts OKX into a different competitive arena from the trading venue that built its global customer base. Stablecoin issuers, crypto platforms and fintech firms now compete for consumers who want dollar exposure, cross-border transfers and card payments without necessarily trading digital assets.

OKX is initially targeting markets where currency volatility, limited banking access and high foreign-exchange costs make holding or spending dollars difficult. The company said it will expand gradually rather than launch across all of the more than 30 jurisdictions where it operates under regulatory frameworks.

The stakes extend to the new shareholders. Circle and Ripple want broader stablecoin distribution, QRT benefits from deeper institutional markets, and Standard Chartered has been expanding its digital-asset infrastructure exposure. OKX must now demonstrate that these partnerships can convert an infrastructure advantage and a large crypto customer network into everyday payment volumes — a distribution, compliance and customer-support challenge quite different from running an exchange. The gradual, market-by-market rollout means proof of adoption will arrive over coming quarters, not overnight.