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World desk3 min

Circle, Ripple and Standard Chartered Back OKX at Flat $25B Valuation

OKX announced a strategic investment from Circle, QRT, Ripple and SC Ventures at a $25 billion pre-money valuation, extending its March financing with ICE. The October round size was not disclosed.
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OKX announced on October 6, 2026, that Circle, Qube Research & Technologies (QRT), Ripple and SC Ventures by Standard Chartered had joined a strategic investment at a $25 billion pre-money valuation. The company says the financing extends the strategic investment from Intercontinental Exchange (ICE) announced in March. The October round’s size and the investors’ individual contributions were not disclosed.

What does “flat $25 billion valuation” mean?

“Flat” means the valuation was reported as unchanged from the $25 billion mark associated with the March 2026 ICE investment. OKX describes the October financing as an extension of that strategic investment. Decrypt reported the March ICE investment at approximately $200 million; that figure concerns the earlier round, not the October extension. Decrypt characterized the valuation as unchanged, while OKX’s announcement specifies that the October valuation was pre-money. OKX

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A pre-money valuation is the company’s stated value before new investment is added. It is not the amount raised, nor does the unchanged figure by itself show whether OKX’s business performance improved or weakened. The announcement does not provide operating data that would independently substantiate the valuation as fair value.

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Who invested, and what does OKX say they bring?

OKX presents the investors as connected to infrastructure it wants to develop across stablecoins, trading liquidity, payments and custody. The descriptions below are the company’s account of those relationships and capabilities, not independent evidence of financial results.

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Circle

OKX identifies Circle as the issuer of USDC and says the stablecoin is integrated across its platform. Circle CEO Jeremy Allaire described that integration as an example of regulated dollar infrastructure meeting an active onchain trading environment.

Qube Research & Technologies

OKX describes QRT as an institutional counterparty that provides liquidity and risk capacity and works with the exchange on products and markets.

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Ripple

OKX says Ripple brings expertise in payments, liquidity and stablecoin infrastructure, and that Ripple’s RLUSD is available across OKX’s unified order book. Ripple SVP of Stablecoins Jack McDonald said scaled platforms such as OKX can help drive the growing role of stablecoins in financial infrastructure.

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SC Ventures by Standard Chartered

OKX says Standard Chartered serves as custodian for BUIDL, which it describes as central to a collateral framework launched with OKX and BlackRock. SC Ventures CEO Alex Manson emphasized institutional-grade custody as part of trustworthy digital-asset infrastructure.

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Intercontinental Exchange

ICE is not named among the October investors in OKX’s announcement. Instead, OKX says the October financing extends ICE’s strategic investment announced in March. Decrypt’s approximately $200 million figure refers to that March investment.

How much did OKX raise in October?

The amount was not disclosed in OKX’s October announcement or in the contemporaneous reports cited here. The same sources do not state how much each investor contributed, the ownership stakes they received or the transaction’s other terms. The reported approximately $200 million for ICE belongs to the March investment and should not be treated as the October round size. Cointelegraph also reported that the October amount was undisclosed.

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Why are these investors backing OKX?

OKX’s stated rationale is strategic: it wants to connect stablecoin issuance and use with liquidity, collateral and custody. Its description of the investors maps onto those ambitions—Circle and Ripple to stablecoin infrastructure, QRT to liquidity and risk capacity, and Standard Chartered to custody. The announcement does not establish that these relationships have produced particular financial results.

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OKX founder and CEO Star Xu said the company aims to build a financial technology platform where people can hold, pay with, invest in and grow digital assets, and said the capital would support growth and real-world-asset tokenization. He described the exchange as a starting point for a broader platform. Those are company plans, not proof that the transition is complete.

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What the unchanged valuation does—and does not—tell you

The same reported valuation in March and October indicates that the later financing was announced at the same mark; it does not reveal the October amount raised or establish a trend in OKX’s operating performance. OKX’s announcement supplies no operating figures with which to assess the valuation independently, and the transaction valuation is not presented as an independently audited fair value.

The clearest takeaway is therefore limited but useful: OKX secured a strategic extension at a reported $25 billion pre-money valuation, with investors whose roles fit the company’s stated infrastructure strategy. The round’s size and detailed terms remain undisclosed.

Product prices and availability are accurate as of the date/time indicated and are subject to change. Any price and availability information displayed on Amazon at the time of purchase will apply.

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