Key takeaways

• The OKX valuation held at $25 billion in a funding round reported on 6 October 2026, with Standard Chartered and Circle named as investors and the amount raised not disclosed.

• $25 billion is the same price the New York Stock Exchange's owner, Intercontinental Exchange, paid in March 2026, in a seven-month stretch when rival exchange Kraken's valuation fell from $20 billion to $13.3 billion.

• All three named OKX investors already do business with the exchange, as its stock market partner, its custody bank and its dollar stablecoin supplier, which makes the round look more like a set of distribution deals than a search for cash.

The OKX valuation is $25 billion again. On 6 October 2026, reports citing Bloomberg said the crypto exchange had completed a funding round at a $25 billion valuation, with the bank Standard Chartered and the stablecoin company Circle among the investors. The amount raised hasn't been made public, and at the time of writing OKX hasn't published details of its own.

The number itself isn't new. In March 2026 Intercontinental Exchange, the company that owns the New York Stock Exchange and is usually shortened to ICE, bought a stake in OKX at the same $25 billion valuation and took a seat on its board. The Block reported that cheque at about $200 million, which by our arithmetic is under 1% of the company. A flat price seven months later sounds like a non-story until you look at who is buying and what they already sell to OKX.

OKX keeps selling small pieces of itself to the companies it most needs to work with, and the price matters less than the list of names.

What is the OKX valuation, and how does it compare with other exchanges?

OKX is valued at $25 billion, based on the March 2026 investment by Intercontinental Exchange and the round reported on 6 October 2026. That is roughly half of Coinbase's stock market value and almost double the $13.3 billion at which Kraken was valued in April 2026, even though OKX is a private company with no public shares.

The comparisons show why holding a price counts as good news this year. Coinbase, the largest listed crypto exchange, had a market value of $49.66 billion on 5 October 2026, down from about $61 billion at the end of 2025. Kraken was valued at $20 billion in late 2025 and then at $13.3 billion in April 2026, when the German exchange group Deutsche Börse bought a 1.5% stake for $200 million. When ICE invested, Reuters noted that the price put OKX well above newly listed rivals Bullish and Gemini.

OKX also says it could have asked for more. Haider Rafique, its global managing partner, said in March that the $25 billion figure was set conservatively on purpose. That fits a company choosing its shareholders carefully, because a lower price is easier for a bank or a listed company to justify to its own board.

Who invested in OKX, and what does each investor get?

Three investors in OKX have been named in 2026, which are Intercontinental Exchange in March and Standard Chartered and Circle in the round reported on 6 October. Each one was a business partner of OKX before it became a shareholder, so each has a commercial reason to want OKX's roughly 120 million accounts to keep growing.

ICE gets distribution for Wall Street products. Under the March deal, ICE licenses OKX's spot crypto prices to build US-regulated futures, and OKX offers ICE's futures and tokenized New York Stock Exchange shares to about 120 million accounts. ICE has been here before, because it built its own crypto venture, Bakkt, and later wrote down $1.1 billion on it. Buying into an exchange that already has the users is the cheaper second attempt.

Standard Chartered gets the institutions that want a bank in the middle. Since April 2025 the bank has run a programme with OKX in which big clients keep their crypto and tokenized money market funds with Standard Chartered while OKX mirrors the balance for trading, so the assets never sit on the exchange. The arrangement reached the European Economic Area in October 2025, and in April 2026 OKX added BlackRock's tokenized Treasury fund, BUIDL, as accepted collateral. Every new institution that trades this way is a custody client for the bank.

Circle gets shelf space for USDC. Circle and OKX agreed in July 2025 to let users swap US dollars and USDC one for one, at a time when The Block put OKX at more than 60 million users. A stablecoin grows by being the default dollar inside popular apps, which is the same lesson behind Tether's lead in stablecoins, and owning part of a large exchange is one way to stay on its front page.

Why does OKX keep taking money at the same price?

OKX appears to be using small share sales to tie important partners to its plans, and it doesn't seem to need the cash. The reported stakes are tiny, the price hasn't moved, and each investor arrived with a commercial agreement attached. The week of the round shows what those partners are being asked to help build.

On 5 October, a joint venture between OKX and ICE called OKXICE told the US Securities and Exchange Commission it intends to open a venue for tokenized stocks, covering more than 60 US-listed companies including Nvidia, Apple and Tesla. The venue would use the five-year "innovation exemption" the SEC issued in September, run on OKX's own blockchain, X Layer, and trade around the clock. CoinDesk reported that each token would be backed one for one by a real share held at a registered broker-dealer, with trades settled in USDC, USDT or USDG. Circle's own stock is on the list.

On 6 October OKX launched OKX Money, an app that converts more than 50 local currencies into dollar stablecoins, pays up to 10% a year on eligible USDG balances and comes with a spending card. Fortune reported that it is aimed at Latin America, Africa, South Asia and the Middle East. Put the two launches next to the investor list and the plan is easy to read, because a tokenized stock market needs a stock exchange, institutional trading needs a custody bank, and a dollar savings app needs a stablecoin issuer.

There is a reputational reason too. In February 2025 the company behind OKX pleaded guilty in the US to operating without a money transmitter licence and paid $505 million. It returned to the US market two months later. A cap table that now includes the owner of the New York Stock Exchange and a 170-year-old global bank answers the trust question more convincingly than any advertising campaign could, and it cost OKX very little ownership to get.

Is OKX going public?

OKX has not filed to go public and says it is in no hurry. In March 2026 Haider Rafique said OKX will list "when we have confidence that we can give back shareholder value," and that the company is being built over 20 to 30 years.

He made those comments at a New York conference while pointing out that Coinbase shares trade well below their 2021 listing price. Kraken, by contrast, confirmed a confidential IPO filing in April 2026 after pausing its earlier plans. Selling small stakes privately to strategic partners gives OKX a published price and respectable shareholders without the quarterly scrutiny of a listing.

What we'd tell a founder about the OKX valuation

Treat exchanges as distribution, and pitch them that way. The three companies that bought into OKX all wanted access to its users. If you're a token team, a listing is one narrow way to get that access, and the same exchange now runs a wallet, a chain, a savings app and soon a stock venue. Work out which of those surfaces your users are on before you spend your budget on the listing alone. We should say that we know one of those surfaces from the inside, because AnkhLabs delivered KOL distribution for OKX Alpha, supporting a $500K public sale close, and creators there were chosen for trading credibility and audience quality over follower count.

Copy the partner-first order. OKX worked with Standard Chartered for 18 months and with Circle for more than a year before either invested. Most projects do it backwards and announce a "strategic investor" who never ships anything with them. A partner that already depends on your product is a better name on the cap table than a bigger fund that doesn't, and it is also a better story to tell people outside the crypto crowd.

Plan around dollars and stocks, because that is where the big platforms are heading. OKX's two launches this week were a stablecoin savings app and a tokenized stock market, and neither involved a new token. That matches the wider shift toward stablecoins as the product ordinary people actually use. If your roadmap assumes exchanges will keep promoting new tokens the way they did in 2021, check that assumption.

Remember the rules are temporary. The tokenized stock venue depends on an SEC exemption that lasts five years, and US crypto still has no market structure law after the CLARITY Act failed in the Senate. Build on these new rails if they suit you, but keep a version of your plan that survives a change of regulator.

A flat price that says a lot

A valuation that hasn't moved in seven months would normally be a dull headline. In a year when a close rival lost a third of its value, OKX kept its price and added a global bank and the second-largest stablecoin issuer to a shareholder list that already had the owner of the New York Stock Exchange. The cash involved looks small, and the real purchase on both sides is access to each other's customers.

Frequently asked questions

How much is OKX worth?

OKX is valued at $25 billion. That price was set when Intercontinental Exchange, the owner of the New York Stock Exchange, invested in March 2026, and it was reported again on 6 October 2026 in a round that included Standard Chartered and Circle. OKX is private, so there is no daily share price.

Who invested in OKX?

Three investors have been named in 2026. Intercontinental Exchange invested a reported $200 million in March and took a board seat. Standard Chartered, a global bank, and Circle, the company behind the USDC stablecoin, were named in a round reported on 6 October 2026. The amount they invested has not been disclosed.

How much money did OKX raise in October 2026?

The amount has not been made public. Reports on 6 October 2026, citing Bloomberg, gave the valuation as $25 billion and named Standard Chartered and Circle as investors without a figure. For comparison, the March 2026 investment by Intercontinental Exchange was reported at about $200 million, which is under 1% of OKX at that price.

Is OKX a publicly traded company?

No. OKX is privately held and has not filed for a stock market listing. Its global managing partner, Haider Rafique, said in March 2026 that OKX will go public only when it is confident it can deliver value to shareholders. OKB, the exchange's token, is a crypto asset and does not represent shares in the company.

Can you buy tokenized stocks on OKX?

Not in the US yet. On 5 October 2026 OKXICE, a joint venture between OKX and Intercontinental Exchange, told the SEC it intends to launch a venue for tokenized versions of more than 60 US-listed stocks, trading 24 hours a day on OKX's X Layer blockchain. No launch date has been announced, and companies have 30 days to opt out.