OKX has raised a strategic investment round at a $25 billion pre-money valuation from Circle, quantitative investment manager Qube Research & Technologies (QRT), Ripple and SC Ventures by Standard Chartered, according to the company announcement published on October 6. The round extends the exchange’s March investment led by Intercontinental Exchange (ICE), the parent company of the New York Stock Exchange, and deepens OKX’s ties to the stablecoin, liquidity and custody layers already running across its platform.
Who Is Backing OKX
Each investor already serves a specific role in OKX’s infrastructure. Circle is the issuer of USDC, the world’s largest regulated stablecoin, while Ripple provides payments, liquidity and the RLUSD stablecoin available on OKX’s unified order book. Standard Chartered acts as custodian for BUIDL, BlackRock’s tokenized Treasury fund at the center of a collateral framework built with OKX. QRT, a multi-strategy investment manager and major institutional counterparty, supplies liquidity and risk capacity. The presence of both USDC and RLUSD issuers in the same round leaves OKX running a multi-stablecoin model rather than tying itself to a single dollar token.
“Circle’s investment in OKX is a deepening of that relationship — and a signal of where we see the next generation of market infrastructure going,” said Circle co-founder and CEO Jeremy Allaire. “Stablecoins are becoming a core part of global financial infrastructure, and scaled platforms like OKX will play an important role in driving that shift,” said Jack McDonald, SVP of Stablecoins at Ripple.
From Exchange to Financial Technology Platform
OKX framed the round as part of a broader shift beyond crypto trading. “The exchange was our starting point, and we are evolving into a broader global financial technology platform,” said founder and CEO Star Xu, who added that the capital will support tokenizing real-world assets. The expansion follows launches such as OKX Money, which converts dozens of currencies into stablecoins.
Extending the ICE Relationship
The financing extends the March investment round led by ICE at the same valuation. That relationship has since produced OKXICE, a joint venture seeking U.S. approval to operate a tokenized securities venue, after OKX and ICE filed to launch 24/7 tokenized stock trading in dozens of U.S. companies. OKX did not disclose the size of the new round, nor whether the investments will lead to additional product integrations.
