OKX confirmed Circle, Ripple, Standard Chartered's SC Ventures, and Qube Research & Technologies as strategic investors on Oct. 6, holding the crypto exchange at a $25 billion pre-money valuation.
CEO Star Xu was direct on the rationale: "We didn't raise capital because we needed it. We chose to bring in strategic partners who share our long-term vision for stablecoins, payments, institutional markets, and the next generation of financial infrastructure."
This is the exchange's second $25 billion round in seven months—Intercontinental Exchange (owner of the New York Stock Exchange) led a March investment with roughly $200 million. But this October close pivots OKX's cap table toward operational synergies rather than pure capital injection.
Circle, issuer of USDC, already integrates across OKX's platform and deepens that footprint through the new equity stake. Ripple brings RLUSD, its stablecoin, into OKX's unified order book with the stated aim of expanding cooperation across payments and institutional settlement.
Standard Chartered adds custodial credibility. The bank acts as custodian for BlackRock's BUIDL tokenized Treasury fund—a product OKX already uses in its institutional collateral framework. That relationship now has equity alignment.
Qube Research & Technologies, which already supplies liquidity to OKX, formalizes its role as the institutional trading anchor in new product rollouts.
OKX pushed the consumer play this week, launching OKX Money, a standalone app in participating markets for users to save, send, and spend dollar-backed stablecoins. The strategic round backs that pivot: stablecoins are not a niche play but OKX's path into cross-border payments and institutional custody—where the margin sits.
