Exclusive: NYSE Parent Company Invests in Crypto Exchange OKX at $25 Billion Valuation as Part of Push Into Blockchain-Based Stocks

Last summer, Haider Rafique traveled to Atlanta for a meeting with the chairman of the New York Stock Exchange. What was intended as a 30-minute discussion turned into a four-hour marathon conversation, recalled Rafique, global managing partner of corporate affairs at OKX—one of the world’s largest crypto exchanges.

A few months later, that casual chat evolved into a series of meetings, rigorous due diligence, and ultimately a massive deal. Intercontinental Exchange, the publicly traded parent company of the New York Stock Exchange, has invested in OKX at a $25 billion valuation and will take a seat on OKX’s board, the two firms announced Thursday. Rafique declined to disclose the amount Intercontinental Exchange put into OKX or the investment terms but emphasized the companies’ shared vision for the future.

“We had great alignment in how we view the world, the future of tokenized securities, how derivatives should reach the global stage, and how TradFi [and] digital assets should merge,” Rafique said, referring to his initial meeting with Jeffrey Sprecher, chairman of the New York Stock Exchange.

The partnership isn’t just a venture investment. OKX will provide Intercontinental Exchange with a live price feed for cryptocurrencies traded on its platform. More importantly, OKX will allow its users to trade tokenized stocks and derivatives listed on the New York Stock Exchange, a feature likely launching in the second half of 2026. Tokenization is the process of wrapping financial assets in blockchain, which proponents say reduces transaction fees and offers other benefits. “This is not a casual investment,” Rafique stressed.

New competition

The capital injection into OKX marks a major commitment from the owner of the world’s most prominent stock exchange, but it’s not Intercontinental Exchange’s first move to keep pace with the rapidly shifting trading landscape. In November, the trading giant announced a $2 billion investment in prediction market Polymarket, valuing the startup at $9 billion. In January, Intercontinental Exchange revealed it was developing its own blockchain-based trading infrastructure for tokenized securities.

Intercontinental Exchange isn’t the only established financial firm betting on crypto as trading habits change. In November, market maker Citadel Securities invested $200 million in Kraken, valuing the digital asset exchange at $20 billion.

“Future competitors for firms like Intercontinental Exchange won’t look like traditional institutions such as CME or Nasdaq—they might be DeFi protocols or super apps,” said Michael Blaugrund, vice president of strategic initiatives at Intercontinental Exchange, naming platforms like Robinhood and Uniswap (the DeFi service that recently announced a token launch).

In an interview, Blaugrund declined to share more details about Intercontinental Exchange’s blockchain-based trading platform. He noted that initiative and the OKX tokenized stock plan are “complementary projects, not a single one.”

For OKX, the partnership with Intercontinental Exchange is part of its effort to rebrand from an East Asian offshore exchange to a global trading hub that complies with U.S. rules—especially as competitor Binance faces scrutiny over its compliance program. “We’re the responsible players in the industry in many ways,” Rafique claimed.

In April, OKX launched in the U.S. two months after settling a $500 million case with the Department of Justice, where it pleaded guilty to operating an unlicensed money transmitting business. Rafique said he plans to relocate up to 2,000 of OKX’s 5,000 employees to the U.S. but didn’t provide a timeline. “To support this product, we’ll definitely invest heavily in the U.S.,” he said, referring to the plan for OKX users to trade Intercontinental Exchange’s tokenized stocks and other assets.

Rafique hopes this isn’t the last collaboration between OKX and Intercontinental Exchange (ICE). “We’re a three-letter company; they’re a three-letter company,” he said. “My aspiration is for a much larger relationship.”

See you tomorrow,

Ben Weiss
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Email: benjamin.weiss@
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Joey Abrams curated the deals section of today’s newsletter. .