Intercontinental Exchange (ICE), the owner of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), has invested in crypto exchange OKX at a $25 billion valuation and will take a seat on the company’s board, according to a Thursday announcement.
ICE has invested an undisclosed amount in OKX as part of its push into blockchain technology and tokenized stocks, the announcement said.
OKX will provide ICE with a live price feed of crypto assets listed on its platform. OKX will also provide access to ICE’s US futures and NYSE tokenized equities markets to its customer base of about 120 million accounts. The integration is expected to roll out in the second half of 2026.
Haider Rafique, global managing partner at OKX, said the two companies shared a strong strategic alignment in their vision for tokenization and traditional finance (TradFi).
“There was great chemistry in how we looked at the world and the future of tokenized securities, how derivatives should make it to the global stage, how TradFi [and] digital assets should merge together,” Rafique said.
A new chapter for OKX in the US
OKX CEO Star Xu took to X to say the investment is “not an endpoint” but rather the beginning of a deeper collaboration.
He highlighted the partnership’s impact on the exchange’s approach to the US, noting that the company views its presence in the country as a “blank sheet of paper.”
The move comes nearly a year after OKX reentered the US in April 2025, along with the appointment of former Barclays director Roshan Robert as its US CEO.
The collaboration with ICE is an “opportunity to build thoughtfully, engage constructively with regulators and institutions, and contribute to the development of market infrastructure that meets the standards of the world’s most sophisticated capital markets,” Xu said.
Related: TD Securities sees NYSE tokenization as institutional turning point
ICE’s investment in OKX is the latest move by the company into the crypto industry. In January, ICE said that it was developing its own blockchain-based trading infrastructure for tokenized securities.
In November 2025, the stock exchange announced plans to invest $2 billion into the prediction market platform Polymarket in a deal valuing the startup at $9 billion. One of the world’s largest prediction marketplaces, Polymarket has faced mounting scrutiny for alleged insider trading.
OKX did not respond to Cointelegraph’s request to comment.
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