Intercontinental Exchange (ICE) has taken a strategic stake in crypto exchange OKX, valuing OKX at $25 billion. The deal includes a strategic relationship focused on market structure design, clearing and risk management, market data, and institutional access to digital assets, and ICE will take a seat on OKX’s board. The collaboration forms part of ICE’s broader push to expand digital market infrastructure, including on-chain capabilities across trading, settlement, custody and capital formation.
ICE Chair and CEO Jeffrey Sprecher said the arrangement will broaden global retail access to ICE’s regulated markets and accelerate plans to offer on-chain infrastructure and tokenised assets to US investors. Star Xu, founder and CEO of OKX, described the alliance as uniting OKX’s digital-asset execution stack with ICE’s regulated-market technology to build a more reliable market structure that bridges digital assets and equities, strengthens cross-market price formation, and meets institutional standards for risk and compliance.
One notable initiative under consideration is the launch of US-regulated crypto futures contracts using OKX’s spot pricing data, providing institutional exposure to crypto markets through regulated derivatives rather than direct token participation. The firms are also exploring expanding access to traditional markets via crypto platforms, and subject to regulatory approval OKX could offer its users access to ICE’s US futures markets and tokenised equities linked to the New York Stock Exchange. OKX operates under licensing regimes across several jurisdictions, including the United States, Europe, the UAE, Singapore and Australia, and has processed trillions of dollars in trading volume, alongside institutional trading and custody services, wallet technology and developer tools for participation in both centralized and decentralized markets.
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