OKX draws investment from Circle, Ripple after ICE deal to push beyond crypto exchange roots

Crypto exchange OKX has secured fresh investment as it looks to transform itself from a venue for trading digital assets into a broader global financial technology platform spanning crypto, payments and traditional assets moving onto blockchain rails.

The new investors are Circle, Ripple, quantitative investment manager Qube Research & Technologies (QRT) and SC Ventures, the venture arm of Standard Chartered. OKX did not disclose the amount invested.

The financing is an extension of a March investment from Intercontinental Exchange (ICE), the owner of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE). Like the earlier deal, the latest investment values OKX at $25 billion on a pre-money basis.

“The exchange was our starting point, and we are evolving into a broader global financial technology platform,” OKX founder and CEO Star Xu said. The company says its goal is to let customers hold, spend, invest and grow their money from the same platform.

That ambition highlights a broader shift among crypto exchanges. Companies that built their businesses around cryptocurrency trading are increasingly trying to become one-stop financial platforms, expanding into payments, stablecoins, stocks, derivatives and tokenized real-world assets.