According to Fortune, Intercontinental Exchange, the publicly traded parent company of the New York Stock Exchange, has invested in crypto exchange OKX at a $25 billion valuation and taken a seat on its board, the two companies confirmed Thursday.
The investment amount and deal terms were not disclosed.
OKB price, OKX’s native exchange token, has jumped over 35% in the last 24 hours, trading at $104.53 at the time of writing.
What the Partnership Involves
Under the agreement, OKX will provide ICE with real-time price data for cryptocurrencies traded on its platform. OKX users will also gain access to tokenized stocks and derivatives listed on the NYSE, with that feature expected to launch in the second half of 2026.
Haider Rafique, OKX’s global managing partner of corporate affairs, said the relationship grew out of a four-hour meeting with NYSE Chairman Jeffrey Sprecher in Atlanta last summer.
“There was great chemistry in how we looked at the world and the future of tokenized securities, how derivatives should make it to the global stage, how TradFi and digital assets should merge together,” Rafique said.
The deal extends ICE’s existing push into blockchain infrastructure. In January, the NYSE announced a 24/7 tokenized securities trading platform, currently pending SEC approval, with BNY and Citi supporting tokenized deposits across ICE’s clearinghouses.
How It Fits the Broader TradFi Shift
ICE’s move follows a pattern of traditional finance firms taking direct stakes in crypto exchanges. In November, Citadel Securities invested $200 million into Kraken at a $20 billion valuation. ICE also invested $2 billion into prediction market Polymarket around the same time.
Michael Blaugrund, ICE’s vice president of strategic initiatives, acknowledged the competitive pressure driving these moves.
“The competitors in the future for firms like Intercontinental Exchange won’t necessarily look like traditional institutions like CME or NASDAQ. They might look like DeFi protocols or super apps,” he said.
OKX’s Push Into the U.S. Market
For OKX, the deal accelerates its repositioning as a U.S.-compliant exchange. The platform relaunched in the States earlier this year, two months after reaching a $500 million DOJ settlement for operating an unlicensed money-transmitting business.
Rafique said the company plans to relocate up to 2,000 of its 5,000 employees to the U.S., with the tokenized stocks product a key driver of that investment.
“We are the sober ones in the industry in many ways,” he said.
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