Intercontinental Exchange, the NYSE’s parent, has invested in OKX at a $25 billion valuation and will join OKX’s board, the companies said on Thursday. Haider Rafique, OKX’s global managing partner of corporate affairs, said there was great chemistry in how they viewed the future of tokenized securities and the merging of TradFi with digital assets. Rafique described the deal as more than a casual investment, noting a shared vision for tokenized securities and the future of derivatives on a global stage. OKX will provide ICE with a live price feed for cryptocurrencies traded on its platform and will enable OKX users to trade tokenized stocks and NYSE-listed derivatives, a capability slated for rollout in the latter half of 2026.
Tokenization refers to the process of taking financial assets and putting them into blockchain wrappers, which proponents say can reduce transaction fees, among other benefits. “This is not just a very casual investment,” said Rafique. The injection of capital into OKX is a big commitment from the owner of the world’s marquee stock exchange, but it isn’t the first move that Intercontinental Exchange has made to keep pace with the rapidly shifting landscape in how people trade. In November, the trading giant said it would invest $2 billion into the Polymarket in a deal that valued the startup at $9 billion.
And in January, Intercontinental Exchange announced that it was developing its own blockchain-based trading infrastructure for tokenized securities. The trading giant also isn’t the only veteran financial company to make a bet on a crypto firm as trading habits shift. In November, the market maker Citadel Securities invested $200 million into Kraken in a deal that valued the digital assets exchange at $20 billion.
Leave a Reply