OKX Secures Strategic Investment From Circle, Ripple and SC Ventures at $25B Valuation

Cryptocurrency exchange OKX has secured a strategic investment from Circle, Ripple, Qube Research & Technologies (QRT), and SC Ventures by Standard Chartered at a $25 billion pre-money valuation ¹. Announced on Oct. 6, 2026, the deal functions as an extension of a previous round led by Intercontinental Exchange (ICE), the parent company of the New York Stock Exchange, which was disclosed in March ¹.

Each participant in the round corresponds to an operational layer within OKX's trading and asset infrastructure ¹. Circle supplies dollar liquidity through its $USDC stablecoin, while Ripple provides payments and stablecoin rails, including integration of its RLUSD stablecoin into OKX's unified order book ¹. Quantitative firm QRT delivers institutional liquidity and risk capacity, and Standard Chartered serves as the custodian for BlackRock’s tokenized Treasury fund, BUIDL, which sits inside OKX's collateral framework ¹.

Institutional Infrastructure Integration

OKX founder and Chief Executive Officer Star Xu stated that the newly secured capital will support the company's expansion into tokenizing real-world assets as it evolves from a pure crypto exchange into a financial technology platform ¹. The investment reflects deeper operational ties across stablecoin settlement, clearing, and institutional custody rather than passive equity backing ¹.

The funding arrives as broader digital asset markets hold steady, with $BTC trading at $86,305 and $ETH at $2,714 at the time of writing. Representatives from Circle, Ripple, and Standard Chartered underscored that institutional adoption across round-the-clock markets relies on connecting compliant custody, regulated settlement assets, and active trading venues ¹. OKX did not disclose the total dollar amount raised in this extension round ¹.