Intercontinental Exchange (ICE), the owner of the New York Stock Exchange, has taken a stake in crypto exchange OKX, valuing the firm at $25 billion, and will join its board, the companies announced Thursday. The dollar amount of ICE’s investment was not disclosed.
Under the strategic partnership, OKX will provide ICE with a live price feed for crypto assets listed on its platform. In return, OKX’s roughly 120 million account holders will gain access to ICE’s U.S. futures and NYSE tokenized-equities markets. The firms said the integration is planned for rollout in the second half of 2026.
Haider Rafique, global managing partner at OKX, said both companies are aligned on tokenization and the blending of traditional finance with digital assets, highlighting shared views on tokenized securities and expanding derivatives into global markets. OKX CEO Star Xu called the deal “the start of deeper collaboration” on X, describing it as a new chapter for the exchange’s U.S. efforts and calling the country’s market a “blank sheet of paper.”
The agreement follows OKX’s reentry into the U.S. market in April 2025 after a $505 million settlement and the appointment of former Barclays director Roshan Robert as OKX’s U.S. CEO.
ICE’s purchase of a stake in OKX is the latest move in the company’s broader push into crypto. In January, ICE disclosed plans to build blockchain-based trading infrastructure for tokenized securities. In November 2025, ICE also announced intentions to invest $2 billion in prediction-market startup Polymarket at a $9 billion valuation; Polymarket has since faced regulatory scrutiny over alleged insider trading.
OKX did not respond to a request for comment. Observers told Cointelegraph the partnership appears aimed at building market infrastructure capable of engaging regulators and institutional players and meeting the standards of sophisticated capital markets.
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