OKX Valued at $25B After Funding Round with Circle, Standard Chartered

OKX Secures $25 Billion Valuation in New Funding Round

Crypto exchange OKX has completed a new funding round at a $25 billion pre-money valuation, the company announced Tuesday. Investors include stablecoin issuer Circle, fintech firm Ripple, and Standard Chartered’s venture capital arm, SC Ventures.

Expansion into Tokenization

The investment is earmarked to accelerate OKX’s push into tokenizing real-world assets (RWAs). CEO and founder Star Xu stated the exchange views itself as evolving beyond a traditional crypto platform into a broader global financial technology provider. This move aligns with increasing interest from traditional finance in blockchain technology.

Broader Industry Trends

OKX’s funding round follows an earlier investment from the Intercontinental Exchange (ICE) earlier this year. The resulting joint venture, OKXICE, recently filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to launch a platform for 24/7 trading of tokenized U.S. stocks. The SEC’s recent approval of tokenized stock trading, coupled with a more favorable regulatory environment under the current administration, is driving increased participation from Wall Street firms like BlackRock and Franklin Templeton, who have already utilized blockchain for money fund tokenization. The S&P 500 also recently approved a derivative contract on Hyperliquid through Trade[XYZ].

Source: Bitcoin Magazine