Crypto exchange OKX has landed new investment from Circle, Ripple, QRT, and Standard Chartered's venture arm SC Ventures, as the company works to grow beyond its roots as a crypto trading venue. The deal values OKX at $25 billion on a pre-money basis — a figure calculated before the new capital is added — matching the valuation set during an earlier funding round in March. The raise comes as OKX and ICE formed a joint venture this week to offer tokenized trading of 63 U.S. company shares.

Bloomberg reported that the new investment extends that March round, which was led by Intercontinental Exchange (ICE), the parent company of the New York Stock Exchange, rather than launching a separate raise. OKX did not disclose how much each of the four new investors contributed, and the company has not broken down individual ownership stakes.

The report was widely circulated on social media, including in an October 6, 2026 post from crypto-focused account Wu Blockchain on X, which cited Bloomberg's reporting:

OKX Raises New Funding at $25B Valuation From Circle, Ripple, SC Ventures and QRT

Bloomberg reported that crypto exchange OKX has raised a new round at a $25 billion valuation, with investors including Circle, Ripple, Standard Chartered's SC Ventures, and London-based… pic.twitter.com/iLI5u4Fb4V

— Wu Blockchain (@WuBlockchain) October 6, 2026

Existing Partners Become Investors

All four new backers already work with OKX in some capacity, with existing business ties spanning stablecoins, liquidity, and custody. The arrangement converts commercial partners into investors in the company. Circle's USDC stablecoin is used across OKX's trading products, while Ripple's RLUSD stablecoin runs through the exchange's unified order book. QRT acts as a trading counterparty for OKX, providing liquidity and risk capacity, and Standard Chartered already handles parts of OKX's institutional custody setup. The overlap extends into the tokenization push as well: USDC is also among the stablecoins the planned OKXICE venture would use to settle trades, placing the new investors' products inside the settlement layer of OKX's expansion beyond trading.

OKX founder and CEO Star Xu said the exchange was the company's starting point and that OKX is now evolving into a global financial technology platform. According to Xu, the goal is to let customers hold, spend, invest, and grow their money in one place. He added that the new capital will support the company's growth plans and help expand its work tokenizing real-world assets. OKX did not say how the new money would be split between projects. The company detailed the announcement in an official statement on its website.

Tokenized Stock Trading Launches With ICE

Beyond the new capital, OKX's relationship with ICE has continued to deepen since the March investment. This week, the joint venture formed by the two companies, called OKXICE, filed plans to launch tokenized stock trading under a framework from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

The venture plans to offer trading in tokenized shares of 63 U.S. companies, available 24 hours a day, seven days a week — a schedule that departs from the fixed session hours of traditional U.S. equity venues. The platform would run on OKX's X Layer blockchain, with trades settling in stablecoins including USDC, USDT, and USDG. Shares traded on the platform would retain their dividend and voting rights, so holders would keep both the income and governance rights attached to conventional shares. The project is an early test of the SEC's five-year tokenization framework.

Analysts Flag Adoption Hurdles

Investment bank Macquarie said adoption will depend on whether OKXICE can attract enough companies and liquidity providers, which it said is needed to keep prices steady around the clock. The bank also noted that the temporary nature of the SEC exemption could make institutions hesitant, as firms may wait to see whether the rules become permanent before committing to new systems. TD Securities raised similar concerns in a separate note.

Macquarie expects retail investors to adopt the platform faster than institutions, noting that institutional players already have efficient ways to trade U.S. stocks and face more regulatory hurdles.

Backers Point to Deeper Ties

Circle CEO Jeremy Allaire directly linked the investment to his company's deepening relationship with OKX, saying USDC's integration across the exchange's platform shows what happens when regulated dollar infrastructure meets active crypto trading markets.

Alex Manson, who leads Standard Chartered's SC Ventures, said digital asset growth requires strong infrastructure, including institutional-grade custody services — the area where the bank already supports OKX.

Ripple senior vice president Jack McDonald said stablecoins are becoming part of core financial infrastructure, adding that the investment could lead to more joint work between Ripple and OKX going forward.

OKX described the new funding as an extension of the round started in March and confirmed that the $25 billion valuation remains unchanged from the earlier deal. The funding announcement lands in the same week as the OKXICE filing. The report was originally published by Coin.