Hedge fund QRT joins Ripple, Circle, and SC Ventures in OKX’s $25B extension round

Hedge fund QRT joins Ripple, Circle, and SC Ventures in OKX’s $25B extension round

The financing is an extension of its March round, when Intercontinental Exchange invested $200 million at the same valuation.

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by Vivian Nguyen

OKX has secured fresh funding at a $25 billion valuation from Qube Research & Technologies (QRT), a global quantitative hedge-fund manager, alongside existing investors Circle, Ripple and Standard Chartered’s SC Ventures, the exchange said Tuesday.

OKB, OKX’s native token, rose about 6% to $138 on news of the extension, CoinGecko data shows. The round maintains the $25 billion valuation set in March, when NYSE parent company Intercontinental Exchange invested $200 million in the platform.

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“QRT’s investment reflects our confidence in OKX and the long-term growth of digital assets and 24/7 markets,” Thomas Eaton, Quantitative Trading Director at QRT, stated.

OKX said the latest capital gives it deeper ties to the infrastructure behind stablecoins, institutional trading, payments and tokenized assets and supports its expansion into real-world asset tokenization and other onchain financial services. The four investors already have commercial relationships with OKX.

“For any meaningful institutional engagement in the context of digital assets, we need trustworthy infrastructure from the outset, including and not limited to institutional grade custody. Our partnership with OKX reflects the importance of such infrastructure in enabling the onchain economy,” Alex Manson, CEO of SC Ventures, said.

“We didn’t raise capital because we needed it. We chose to bring in strategic partners who share our long-term vision for stablecoins, payments, institutional markets, and the next generation of financial infrastructure,” OKX CEO Star Xu commented on the news.

The funding comes as traditional financial firms are increasingly working with crypto platforms on new market infrastructure.

Following ICE’s investment in OKX, the companies developed OKXICE LLC, a joint venture focused on tokenized stock trading. OKXICE said it is seeking approval to offer tokenized stocks representing 63 US public companies, including NVIDIA, Apple and Tesla, under the SEC’s five-year innovation exemption. The exemption allows tokenized stocks to trade in the US if they provide rights equivalent to those of traditional shares.

This article has been updated with comments from OKX’s investors.

Disclosure: This article was edited by Vivian Nguyen. For more information on how we create and review content, see our Editorial Policy.
BUSINESS
Hedge fund QRT joins Ripple, Circle, and SC Ventures in OKX’s $25B extension round
Hedge fund QRT joins Ripple, Circle, and SC Ventures in OKX’s $25B extension round

The financing is an extension of its March round, when Intercontinental Exchange invested $200 million at the same valuation.

by Vivian Nguyen

Share

Add us on Google

OKX has secured fresh funding at a $25 billion valuation from Qube Research & Technologies (QRT), a global quantitative hedge-fund manager, alongside existing investors Circle, Ripple and Standard Chartered’s SC Ventures, the exchange said Tuesday.

OKB, OKX’s native token, rose about 6% to $138 on news of the extension, CoinGecko data shows. The round maintains the $25 billion valuation set in March, when NYSE parent company Intercontinental Exchange invested $200 million in the platform.

Advertisement

“QRT’s investment reflects our confidence in OKX and the long-term growth of digital assets and 24/7 markets,” Thomas Eaton, Quantitative Trading Director at QRT, stated.

OKX said the latest capital gives it deeper ties to the infrastructure behind stablecoins, institutional trading, payments and tokenized assets and supports its expansion into real-world asset tokenization and other onchain financial services. The four investors already have commercial relationships with OKX.

“For any meaningful institutional engagement in the context of digital assets, we need trustworthy infrastructure from the outset, including and not limited to institutional grade custody. Our partnership with OKX reflects the importance of such infrastructure in enabling the onchain economy,” Alex Manson, CEO of SC Ventures, said.

“We didn’t raise capital because we needed it. We chose to bring in strategic partners who share our long-term vision for stablecoins, payments, institutional markets, and the next generation of financial infrastructure,” OKX CEO Star Xu commented on the news.

The funding comes as traditional financial firms are increasingly working with crypto platforms on new market infrastructure.

Following ICE’s investment in OKX, the companies developed OKXICE LLC, a joint venture focused on tokenized stock trading. OKXICE said it is seeking approval to offer tokenized stocks representing 63 US public companies, including NVIDIA, Apple and Tesla, under the SEC’s five-year innovation exemption. The exemption allows tokenized stocks to trade in the US if they provide rights equivalent to those of traditional shares.

This article has been updated with comments from OKX’s investors.

Disclosure: This article was edited by Vivian Nguyen. For more information on how we create and review content, see our Editorial Policy.