The parent company of the New York Stock Exchange has invested in OKX with a valuation of $25 billion, and tokenized stock trading will launch in the second half of 2026.
Introduction: The highest hall of traditional financial infrastructure officially enters crypto. The parent company of the New York Stock Exchange, ICE, has invested in OKX with a valuation of $25 billion, and will open tokenized stock trading on the NYSE to its users — this is not an ordinary financial investment, but the most iconic step in the era of the fusion of TradFi and CeFi.
Last summer, Haider Rafique, the Global Head of Corporate Affairs at OKX, specially flew to Atlanta to meet with Jeffrey Sprecher, the Chairman of the New York Stock Exchange. The originally scheduled 30-minute meeting ultimately lasted a full four hours.
Fast forward a few months, this informal chat evolved into a series of meetings and intense due diligence, ultimately leading to a major deal. The Intercontinental Exchange (ICE)—the publicly listed parent company of the New York Stock Exchange—has completed a strategic investment in OKX, with a valuation set at $25 billion, and will hold a seat on the OKX board. The two parties officially announced this to the public on Thursday.
Rafique refused to disclose the specific investment amount and terms from ICE but emphasized that the two parties are highly aligned in vision.
“Our view of the world, our outlook on the future of tokenized securities, how derivatives are moving onto the global stage, and how traditional finance and digital assets can merge—the chemistry between the two is very compatible,” Rafique describes his first meeting with NYSE Chairman Jeffrey Sprecher.
This deal is not just a financial investment. OKX will provide ICE with real-time price data streams for cryptocurrencies traded on its platform; more importantly, OKX users will be able to trade tokenized stocks and derivatives listed on the New York Stock Exchange directly—this feature is expected to officially launch in the second half of 2026. The so-called 'tokenization' refers to the process of packaging financial assets into blockchain wrappers, and supporters believe this can reduce costs such as trading fees. 'This is definitely not just a superficial investment,' Rafique emphasized.
New Competitive Landscape
ICE's investment in OKX is an important step for this exchange giant to keep up with the rapid changes in trading models, but it is not the first step.
Last November, ICE announced a $2 billion investment in the prediction market platform Polymarket, which was valued at $9 billion. In January of this year, ICE announced that it is developing its own blockchain-based tokenized securities trading infrastructure.
Established financial institutions betting on crypto companies are not uncommon, and ICE is no exception. Last November, market maker Citadel Securities invested $200 million in the crypto exchange Kraken at a $20 billion valuation.
“The future competitors for institutions like ICE may not necessarily be traditional institutions like CME or Nasdaq, but rather DeFi protocols or super apps,” said Michael Blaugrund, Vice President of Strategic Initiatives at ICE, hinting at Robinhood and the recently announced DeFi platform Uniswap's partnership with BlackRock.
In an interview, Blaugrund declined to elaborate on the specifics of building the blockchain trading platform. He stated that ICE's development of a tokenized platform and its plan to open tokenized stock trading to OKX users are 'complementary projects, but not the same project.'
OKX's U.S. strategy
For OKX, the collaboration with ICE is an important part of its image reshaping—from an offshore exchange based in East Asia to a global trading hub operating in compliance in the U.S. This goal is particularly urgent as competitors like Binance face ongoing compliance issues.
“We are the clear-headed ones in this industry,” Rafique positions OKX.
In February 2025, OKX paid a $500 million fine to the U.S. Department of Justice for operating unlicensed remittance services and pleaded guilty to a related charge. In April 2025, OKX completed its relaunch in the U.S. Rafique stated that OKX plans to relocate up to 2,000 of its 5,000 employees to the U.S., but did not disclose a specific timeline. 'Especially to support this product, we will definitely invest heavily in the U.S.,' he said, referring to the trading plans for tokenized stocks and other assets from ICE.
Rafique also expressed greater expectations for the cooperation between the two parties. 'We are a three-letter company, and they are also a three-letter company,' he said, 'My wish is that perhaps we can establish a more grand relationship between us.'