Crypto exchange OKX has secured fresh investment from Circle, Ripple, Qube Research & Technologies and SC Ventures at a $25 billion pre-money valuation, extending a March round from Intercontinental Exchange, the owner of the New York Stock Exchange.

The new financing — the amount undisclosed — brings strategic backers with direct overlap in stablecoins and payments. Circle issues USDC. Ripple provides payments infrastructure and the RLUSD stablecoin. SC Ventures is the venture arm of Standard Chartered, which already serves as custodian for BlackRock's BUIDL tokenized Treasury fund under a collateral arrangement with OKX and BlackRock.

OKX founder and CEO Star Xu positioned the deal as a scope expansion. "The exchange was our starting point, and we are evolving into a broader global financial technology platform," Xu said.

What does the $25 billion valuation signal?

The valuation holds the figure ICE accepted in March, pointing to no immediate upward repricing despite the addition of strategic investors. OKX stated its goal is letting customers hold, spend, invest and grow their money from one platform.

The investor mix captures how the line between crypto exchanges and broader fintech has blurred. QRT, an institutional counterparty to OKX, supplies trading liquidity, a role historically filled by bank proprietary desks.

How does the ICE joint venture extend OKX's reach?

OKXICE, the joint venture with NYSE parent ICE, filed this week with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to launch tokenized stock trading. The venue plans 24/7 trading in tokenized shares of 63 U.S. companies via OKX's X Layer blockchain, settling in USDC, USDT and USDG.

Shares would retain dividend and voting rights, according to the filing. The structure serves as an early test of the SEC's five-year tokenization framework.

Who will actually use the tokenized-stock venue?

Institutional appetite is unresolved. In a Tuesday report, Macquarie warned adoption depends on OKXICE drawing enough issuers, investors and market makers to sustain continuous pricing around the clock.

The temporary nature of the SEC exemption makes institutions reluctant to spend on system integration before rule permanence is clear, the bank noted. TD Securities echoed those concerns in a Monday note.

Macquarie expects early demand to lean retail. Institutions already operate efficient access to U.S. listed equities and face higher regulatory and technology costs.

Where does this leave competing exchanges?

The deal arrives as a wave of crypto-native venues court regulatory legitimacy and traditional finance partnerships. By adding Circle and Ripple, OKX aligns itself with the two largest non-Tether stablecoin issuers and a major cross-border payments network.

Standard Chartered's inclusion adds a tier-one global custodian with direct lines into tokenized Treasuries. QRT contributes quantitative liquidity — capacity difficult to replicate without institutional-scale counterparties.

Why the APAC focus?

Standard Chartered's standing as BUIDL custodian, paired with Ripple's RLUSD rollout, anchors the new cohort in markets where stablecoin rules and tokenized-asset use cases are converging fastest. APAC has emerged as a proving ground for regulated stablecoin issuance.

OKX's ICE deal moved the company into 24/7 markets for U.S. equities. The new investors bank it for the next phase: turning X Layer and the OKXICE venue into regulated infrastructure operating at institutional scale.

Macquarie's analysis represents one of the first bank assessments of OKXICE's market structure; the SEC's tokenization exemption faces a scheduled review before its five-year term ends.