--- title: "OKX Raises Strategic Capital at $25 Billion Valuation" date: 2026-10-06 author: "Kathleen Kinder" featured_image: "https://coinlaw.io/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/okx-investment-ripple-circle-standard-chartered.jpg" categories: - name: "Investments" url: "/investments.md" tags: - name: "News" url: "/tag/news.md" --- # OKX Raises Strategic Capital at $25 Billion Valuation OKX announced on October 6, 2026 the completion of a strategic investment from Circle, Qube Research & Technologies (QRT), Ripple and SC Ventures by Standard Chartered. ## Quick Summary - OKX completed the round at a $25 billion pre-money valuation. Pre-money means the figure does not yet include the new investment. - Intercontinental Exchange (ICE) said its earlier OKX investment reflects a valuation of OKX of $25 billion. Neither announcement gives round size or terms. - ICE will have a board seat on OKX’s Board of Directors. The new investors are listed as investors, with no board role stated. - According to OKX, four layers matter: stablecoin issuance, liquidity, collateral and custody. It says each investor in this round already supports one of those layers on OKX. - Star Xu said the round, which includes Circle, gives OKX the capital to keep growing and to tokenize real-world assets. ## What Happened? OKX said the round extends the March investment from **Intercontinental Exchange (ICE)**, the parent company of the New York Stock Exchange. In the same post, OKX described the four new backers, including Circle, as four partners that each serve a critical role in the ecosystem. Xu framed the deal as a change in what OKX is. **Star Xu**, Founder and CEO, OKX. “ The exchange was our starting point, and we are evolving into a broader global financial technology platform. Star XuFounder and CEO – OKX ## What ICE brought in March, and what the new backers add? The [ICE investor relations release](https://ir.theice.com/press/news-details/2026/ICE-Makes-Investment-in-OKX-Establishing-Strategic-Relationship/) said ICE will license OKX’s spot crypto prices and launch U.S.-regulated futures contracts tied to those markets. It added that Subject to regulatory approval, OKX will provide access to ICE’s U.S. futures and NYSE tokenized equities markets. > 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 quantitative hedge fund Qube Research & Technologies (QRT). The size of the round was not disclosed. The financing extends OKX’s March raise, when NYSE parent Intercontinental Exchange (ICE) invested about $200 million at the same valuation. OKX said the new capital will be used to strengthen its long-term market infrastructure. > > — Wu Blockchain (@WuBlockchain) [October 6, 2026](https://x.com/WuBlockchain/status/2107445766776390046?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw) The October round covers a different part of the stack. OKX describes Circle as a leading internet financial platform company and the issuer of **USDC**, the world’s largest [regulated stablecoin](https://coinlaw.io/stablecoin-statistics/). QRT, a global multi-strategy investment manager and a major institutional counterparty to OKX, provides liquidity and risk capacity at scale. Ripple brings payments, liquidity and stablecoin infrastructure expertise, with its **[RLUSD stablecoin](https://coinlaw.io/rlusd-statistics/)** available across OKX’s unified order book. Standard Chartered acts as custodian for BUIDL, the tokenized Treasury fund at the center of the collateral framework launched in partnership with OKX and BlackRock. ## The Figure is Confirmed – Terms Are Not Read side by side, the two announcements use the same headline number, and only one of them names a basis. ICE described a valuation that its investment reflects, while **OKX now calls the figure pre-money**. The ICE release adds that the terms of the investment were not disclosed. The October post also gives no round size, per-investor amounts or governance terms. That limits what outsiders can infer. The figure cannot be read as a price rise or a flat mark, and the missing terms leave the weight of each backer unclear. The ICE release also said ICE’s minority position in the OKX group is not expected to have a material impact on ICE’s 2026 financial results or capital return plans. That frames ICE’s stake as strategic rather than financial. ## Implications for OKX’s institutional push The two rounds split the work. ICE’s release points to futures, **tokenized equities access** and an aim to advance multi-chain custody and wallet architecture. The October group supplies stablecoin, liquidity and collateral partners. In CoinLaw’s reading, Circle maps to stablecoin issuance, QRT to liquidity and Standard Chartered to custody and collateral. The investors are also commercial partners. **QRT** trades as a counterparty, **Ripple’s RLUSD** sits on the unified order book, and **Standard Chartered** holds the BUIDL collateral asset. Backers that are also customers can deepen integration, but they also tie the valuation to relationships [O](https://coinlaw.io/okx-exchange-statistics/)[K](https://coinlaw.io/okx-exchange-statistics/)[X](https://coinlaw.io/okx-exchange-statistics/) controls. ## CoinLaw’s Takeaway The ICE deal gave OKX a route to regulated markets. This round gives it names behind the stablecoin, liquidity and custody layers it says institutions expect. Together they make OKX look more like market infrastructure than a trading app. The open question is price. Both announcements use the same headline figure, and neither shows round size or terms. Until those details appear, the valuation says less than the roster does, and the roster says more about partnerships than about OKX’s own financial strength. Definition of Blockchain. Link to full glossary entry follows the description.**Blockchain**A distributed digital ledger that records transactions across a network, with each block cryptographically linked to the previous one for security. [Read more](https://coinlaw.io/glossary/blockchain/) Definition of Stablecoin. Link to full glossary entry follows the description.**Stablecoin**A stablecoin is a cryptocurrency tied to a reserve asset like the US dollar, designed to maintain a stable value for trading, payments, and transfers. [Read more](https://coinlaw.io/glossary/stablecoin/)