What happened
OKX pulled in additional capital at a $25 billion valuation on Tuesday, Cointelegraph reported, framed as an extension of the March round led by Intercontinental Exchange. ICE, which runs the New York Stock Exchange, anchored the original tranche earlier this year and remains the strategic lead on the extension. The exchange didn't disclose the size of the new money or name the fresh participants. A $25 billion mark holds the valuation from the March close, which itself was a step-up from the prior venture rounds that put OKX in the single-digit billions.
The signaling matters more than the dollar figure. Keeping the valuation flat on an extension, rather than taking a down round, is the point. In a secondary market where exchange marks have been volatile, holding $25B with ICE still at the table is a validation stamp. It also lets OKX bring in later-stage strategic money without resetting the cap table.
Why it matters
OKX settled with the US Department of Justice in early 2025 for $505 million over historical compliance failures, a resolution that cleared the path for the exchange to re-enter the US market under a fresh regulatory posture. The ICE-led March round was the first external signal that institutional capital was willing to underwrite that turnaround. The Tuesday extension says that view hasn't broken.
At $25 billion, OKX sits in the same bracket as Kraken's most recent private marks and well above most non-Binance global venues. It's a reset of the pecking order. Coinbase trades publicly in a different conversation. Binance's implied valuation remains the ceiling the rest of the market measures against. OKX is now trying to carve out the number-two slot for regulated flow outside Binance's orbit, and ICE's continued participation gives it the TradFi credential to make that pitch to US institutions.