OKX Secures $25B Valuation in Round Led by Circle and Ripple

Crypto exchange OKX secured a $25 billion valuation from major industry players, while the CFTC proposed a federal framework for retail leveraged trading and the UK appointed lead banks for its digital gilt pilot.

1. OKX Secures Strategic Investment From Circle and Ripple at $25B Valuation OKX closed a strategic funding round at a $25 billion pre-money valuation, drawing capital from Circle, Ripple, QRT, and SC Ventures. The funding extends a March investment led by NYSE-parent Intercontinental Exchange and will target real-world asset tokenization and platform infrastructure.

2. CFTC Proposes Regulation CTX and CAM to Establish Federal Crypto Trading Framework The CFTC published an Advanced Notice of Proposed Rulemaking on Oct. 5, 2026, for Regulation CTX and Regulation CAM. The proposed rules would allow registered crypto exchanges to offer retail customers margined, leveraged, or financed trading under a single federal scheme.

3. UK HM Treasury Appoints Six Banks to Lead Pilot Digital Gilt Issuance HM Treasury selected Barclays, HSBC, Lloyds, Morgan Stanley, NatWest, and RBC Capital Markets as Joint Lead Managers for its DIGIT pilot. The short-dated digital bond will settle on-chain within the UK Digital Securities Sandbox by Q1 2027.

4. Winklevoss Asset Services Files S-1 Registration for Spot Zcash ETF Winklevoss Asset Services filed an S-1 registration statement with the SEC on Oct. 6, 2026, for a spot Zcash ETF. The fund plans to list on Nasdaq under the ticker WINK, with Gemini Trust Company serving as custodian for the underlying $ZEC.

5. OKX Launches Standalone App OKX Money for Stablecoin Savings and Payments OKX launched OKX Money, a standalone mobile application focused on saving, transferring, and spending stablecoins. The app supports over 50 deposit currencies and offers up to 10% APY on $USDG balances in select markets.

6. Ethereum Schedules Glamsterdam Upgrade for Sepolia Testnet on Oct. 6 The Glamsterdam upgrade activated on the Sepolia testnet at epoch 353,024 on October 6, 2026. The hard fork introduces enshrined proposer-builder separation and block-level access lists, alongside a scheduled 200M block gas limit.

7. Ripple Prime Expands Multi-Asset Brokerage Mandate to Brevan Howard Funds Ripple Prime will deliver multi-asset prime brokerage, clearing, and financing services to Brevan Howard funds. Brevan Howard, which manages about $35 billion in assets, participated in Ripple's $500 million strategic funding round in 2025.

Numbers

Bitcoin traded at $85,592, down 0.2% over 24 hours, while Ether fell 0.6% to $2,698, and the total crypto market capitalization stood at $2.87 trillion.

Watch

• The close of the 60-day public comment period following the CFTC's Federal Register publication of Regulation CTX and CAM.
• The issuance of the UK DIGIT pilot bond scheduled for Q1 2027 within the Digital Securities Sandbox.
• SEC review milestones and potential registration amendments for the proposed Winklevoss Zcash ETF.