Summary
- OKX has secured new funding while maintaining a $25 billion valuation, consistent with its previous round in March.
- The investors include Circle, Ripple, SC Ventures of Standard Chartered, and Qube Research & Technologies.
- The exchange's partnership with ICE is pursuing regulatory approval to offer tokenized stocks for 63 companies in the U.S.
The cryptocurrency exchange OKX has successfully raised additional capital at a valuation of $25 billion, a figure that remains unchanged since its last funding round in March, as reported by Bloomberg. This round of funding saw participation from notable entities such as Circle Internet Group, Ripple, SC Ventures (the investment branch of Standard Chartered), and newcomer Qube Research & Technologies.
The specific amount raised has not been disclosed by the exchange. This funding round builds on a previous investment made in March by the Intercontinental Exchange (ICE), which invested approximately $200 million at the same $25 billion valuation, a move centered around tokenized securities. Now, seven months later, the valuation remains unchanged.
Haider Rafique, the global managing partner at OKX, stated that the funds will be directed towards enhancing the exchange's long-term market infrastructure.
Qube Research & Technologies, a quantitative hedge fund spun off from Credit Suisse, already manages a crypto fund worth around $1 billion. Thomas Eaton, a director of quantitative trading at the firm, noted that their investment signifies confidence in the "long-term growth of digital assets and 24/7 markets."
Since March, ICE and OKX have collaborated on their joint venture, OKXICE LLC, which recently announced its intention to seek approval for offering tokenized stocks in 63 publicly traded U.S. companies, including major names like Nvidia, Apple, and Coca-Cola.
This offering is intended to operate under the Securities and Exchange Commission's innovation exemption, which was introduced in September following the stalling of the Clarity Act in the Senate. This exemption allows qualifying platforms to trade tokenized U.S. equities on public blockchains without needing to register as national securities exchanges for a duration of up to five years. It applies only to tokens that provide the same rights as standard shares, such as dividends and voting rights, excluding synthetics that simply track prices.
The exemption also imposes limitations on the number of stocks that can be listed by each venue and grants issuers a 30-day period to contest a third party's tokenization of their shares. This means that Nvidia, Apple, and Coca-Cola can decide whether their stocks will be available on this platform.
In addition to pursuing tokenized stocks, OKX has also been expanding its equity offerings through other means, having recently launched perpetual futures contracts based on the Magnificent Seven stocks and the S&P 500.