Today in crypto, Intercontinental Exchange (ICE), owner of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), invested in OKX at a $25 billion valuation, crypto stocks surged after US President Trump and US regulators forged ahead with their crypto support, and the nomination of Kevin Warsh as chairman of the US Federal Reserve has been officially sent to the US Senate for confirmation.
NYSE owner ICE invests in OKX at $25 billion valuation
ICE 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.
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.
Stocks rally as Trump, regulators nudge pro-crypto agenda
Crypto-related stocks surged in the trading session on Wednesday, as pro-crypto US presidential commentary pushed up Bitcoin and the broader crypto market.
Alongside a rise in the cryptocurrency market, Bitcoin treasury company Strategy spiked by more than 10%. Crypto exchange Coinbase registered a more than 14% gain, while miners Hut 8 clocked 13.89%, and American Bitcoin Corp rose 11.65%.
Dominick John, an analyst at Zeus Research, told Cointelegraph the promise of clearer regulations on the near horizon could be one of the factors fueling the rally.
“Crypto equities are rallying as regulatory risk is being fundamentally redefined. With the executive branch championing a clear digital asset framework, coupled with robust spot ETF inflows and the potential passage of the Clarity Act,” he said.
Pav Hundal, the lead analyst at Australian crypto platform Swyftx, told Cointelegraph that US President Donald Trump’s recent swipe at the banks and his push for the Senate’s crypto market structure bill to pass could also be playing a factor.
Trump sends pro-Bitcoin Fed chair nomination to Senate
The US Senate will soon vote on Donald Trump’s nominee to head the US Federal Reserve after the president picked Kevin Warsh, who has previously expressed pro-Bitcoin views, to replace Fed chair Jerome Powell.
In a notice on Wednesday, the White House said that Trump had sent Warsh’s nomination to the Senate to be chair of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve for a term of four years, and as a Fed governor for 14 years. The president had previously taken to social media to announce Warsh was his pick to replace Powell, whose term as chair ends in May but may stay on as a Fed governor until 2028.
The prospective Fed chair has made many public statements in favor of Bitcoin (BTC) adoption. In a January 2021 interview with CNBC’s Squawk Box, he said "if Bitcoin never existed gold would be rallying even more right now, but I guess if you are under forty, bitcoin is your new gold." In a 2025 interview with the Hoover Institution, Warsh said the cryptocurrency “could provide market discipline, or [...] could tell the world that things need to be fixed.”
