OKX Secures $25B Valuation as ICE Tokenized Stock Push Begins

A joint venture between crypto exchange OKX and the owner of the New York Stock Exchange is seeking federal approval to sell tokenized shares of 63 U.S. public companies, a move that coincides with fresh capital flowing into the exchange at a flat $25 billion valuation.

OKXICE LLC, formed in March after Intercontinental Exchange invested roughly $200 million into OKX, disclosed Monday that it has applied to list tokenized stock representing firms including Nvidia, Apple and Coca-Cola. The application tests a newly created regulatory pathway designed to bring traditional equities onto public blockchains without requiring venues to register as national securities exchanges.

The initiative relies on an innovation exemption introduced by the Securities and Exchange Commission in September. Regulators established the carve-out shortly after the Clarity Act stalled in the Senate, leaving the digital asset industry without comprehensive market structure legislation. Under the exemption, qualifying platforms can trade tokenized U.S. equities for up to five years, provided the tokens carry identical shareholder rights—including dividends and voting power—to their conventional counterparts. Instruments that merely track price movements through synthetic derivatives are prohibited from using the safe harbor.

Corporate issuers retain significant control over the process. The SEC framework grants companies a 30-day window to object if a third party attempts to tokenize their shares, effectively giving each of the 63 targeted firms veto power over whether their equity appears on the OKXICE venue. The exemption also imposes strict caps on the total number of stocks any single platform can list.

The regulatory push arrives alongside new investment from a consortium bridging traditional finance and the digital asset sector. Circle Internet Group, Ripple and SC Ventures—the investment arm of British bank Standard Chartered—participated in the latest funding round. London-based quantitative hedge fund Qube Research & Technologies joined the cap table for the first time. OKX declined to disclose the total amount raised.

QRT, which spun out of Credit Suisse, already manages a cryptocurrency fund holding approximately $1 billion. Thomas Eaton, a quantitative trading director at the firm, characterized the investment as a bet on continuous 24/7 market infrastructure rather than short-term price speculation.

Maintaining the exact $25 billion valuation established seven months earlier signals that private market pricing for top-tier crypto exchanges has stabilized. Unlike venture capital rounds during the 2021 bull market, where valuations frequently doubled between tranches based on retail trading volume surges, current pricing reflects institutional demand for regulated infrastructure and yield-generating products.

The involvement of stablecoin issuers Circle and Ripple points toward deeper integration between payment rails and trading venues. Both companies have spent recent years expanding beyond simple cross-border transfers into broader financial plumbing, and direct equity stakes in major exchanges accelerate that transition.

OKX has simultaneously expanded its exposure to traditional equities through unregulated channels. The platform currently lists perpetual futures contracts tied to the S&P 500 and the Magnificent Seven technology stocks, offering crypto-native traders leveraged bets on conventional market movements without touching actual shares. The OKXICE application represents an attempt to migrate that demand into a compliant, SEC-recognized framework.