OKX raises funding at $25B valuation from Circle and Ripple

Crypto exchange OKX has raised new funding at a $25 billion valuation. The investors include Circle, Ripple, Standard Chartered's SC Ventures arm and the London quantitative hedge fund Qube Research & Technologies. According to Bloomberg, the exchange did not disclose the size of the round, and it published the details in a press statement on Tuesday.

Round details

The new tranche extends a round OKX announced in March. Back then Intercontinental Exchange, the owner of the New York Stock Exchange, put in about $200 million at the same $25 billion valuation. In seven months it has not moved.

This stage added Circle, the issuer of USDC, Ripple and SC Ventures, the investment arm of Standard Chartered. Qube Research & Technologies had not been on the OKX cap table before. It is a British trading firm spun out of Credit Suisse, and its crypto fund holds roughly $1 billion in assets.

Cointelegraph describes the tranche as an extension of the March round. CoinDesk writes that the exchange increasingly positions itself as a global fintech platform spanning crypto, payments and tokenized assets. That turn began with the deal and the joint venture with ICE. The market is in a tricky spot. Bitcoin dipped below $84,000 on the day of the announcement after several failed attempts to hold above $87,000.

Where the money goes

OKX founder and CEO Star Xu said the funds will help the exchange grow into a broader global fintech platform. In his words, it should combine crypto technology with the standards people expect from large financial institutions.

The exchange's global managing partner Haider Rafique added that the money will go toward strengthening long-term market infrastructure.

Thomas Eaton, a quantitative trading director at Qube, tied the fund's interest to confidence in the long-term growth of digital assets and in markets that run around the clock. It is not the firm's first contact with crypto, since its own crypto fund already manages about $1 billion.

The SEC filing with ICE

ICE and OKX have worked together since March, when the NYSE owner invested in the exchange and the deal was framed around tokenized securities. On Monday the joint venture, OKXICE LLC, went to the SEC. It asks for approval to trade tokenized stock in 63 US public companies, among them Nvidia, Apple and Coca-Cola.

The platform would run under the innovation exemption the regulator introduced in September, shortly after the Clarity Act stalled in the Senate. The exemption lets qualifying venues trade tokenized US equities on public blockchains without registering as national securities exchanges, for up to five years. It covers only tokens that carry the same rights as ordinary shares, including dividends and voting. Synthetics that merely track a price are left out.

The number of stocks per venue is capped, and issuers get 30 days to object to a third party tokenizing their shares. On that timetable Nvidia, Apple and Coca-Cola each hold a veto over whether their stock appears on the platform. OKX has already listed perpetual futures on Magnificent Seven stocks and on the S&P 500.

OKX Money and the next step

Separately, the exchange launched OKX Money, a stablecoin savings and payments app. It runs in parts of Latin America, Africa, South Asia and the Middle East, and the rollout goes market by market under local requirements.

• Accounts can be funded in more than 50 currencies, and deposits are converted into dollar stablecoins.
• Users can hold USDT, USDC or USDG, send funds and pay with a virtual or physical card.
• Qualifying customers earn up to 10% a year on USDG with no staking or lockup.

A higher tier is available with a 30-day average deposit above a set threshold, spending above a set amount or a higher VIP status on the exchange. Rates and eligibility vary by region and customer. Paxos issues USDG, and OKX joined that company's Global Dollar Network back in July 2025. According to Chainalysis, cross-border stablecoin flows rose 77.5% to $220.3 billion in the 12 months to June 2026, with trade, remittances and savings named as the drivers.

Asked how that yield is funded, an OKX spokesperson declined to answer. Cointelegraph recalled Anchor Protocol, which promised up to 20% on the algorithmic stablecoin TerraUSD, and both tokens collapsed in May 2022. OKX did not name its launch countries, so it is unclear whether the app will reach Ukrainian users.

For OKX this is the second round in a row at the same valuation. The backers come from a stablecoin issuer, Ripple, a bank and a quant fund, and the SEC decision on the OKXICE filing is still pending.