The publicly traded parent company of NYSE, Intercontinental Exchange (ICE), is establishing a strategic partnership with the global centralized exchange.
Intercontinental Exchange (ICE), the owner of the New York Stock Exchange, has announced a strategic investment in global cryptocurrency exchange OKX, valuing the platform at $25 billion.
According to an announcement from ICE on Thursday, March 5, the collaboration is set to bolster ICE’s on-chain capabilities, while enhancing OKX’s institutional and retail offerings.
While the exact terms of the investment weren’t disclosed in the announcement, the two firms have established a strategic partnership, with plans to expand offerings from both sides.
For its part, ICE said it plans to launch regulated futures in the U.S. tied to the spot prices of cryptocurrencies on OKX, which it will license. From its side, OKX plans to offer its global retail and institutional user base access to ICE’s U.S. futures and NYSE tokenized stocks — though the announcement notes this move is pending regulatory approval.
The partnership also aims to further develop digital asset infrastructure for institutional investors, including custody and wallet solutions, as well as risk management, per the release.
Additionally, the NYSE owner will have a seat on OKX’s board. Jeffrey C. Sprecher, ICE chair and CEO, was quoted in the release, saying:
“Our strategic relationship with OKX will expand global retail access to ICE’s pre-eminent regulated markets and accelerate our plans to offer on-chain infrastructure and tokenized assets to U.S. investors.”
OKX is one of the largest centralized exchanges globally by 24-hour trading volume. Processing $2.7 billion in trades in the past day, it’s currently ranked fourth among CEXs, after Binance, with $13.3 billion, followed by Gate and Coinbase.
OKX’s founder, Star Xu, originally launched crypto exchange Okcoin in 2013, making it one of the earliest crypto exchanges, while OKX (formerly OKEx) was launched later, in 2017.
While the founding teams for Okcoin and OKX are originally from China, the platforms, which operated as independent entities for several years, quickly expanded globally and were headquartered in different countries, with Okcoin focusing on U.S. traders.
The firms consolidated and rebranded under one entity, OKX, in 2023, with regulated offerings in multiple jurisdictions.
The partnership and investment mark a significant moment for OKX’s U.S. presence and its institutional-grade offerings globally. Meanwhile, the move is Intercontinental Exchange’s latest to expand its presence in digital assets. The publicly traded financial giant launched its own crypto platform, Bakkt, back in 2018, which marked its initial foray into facilitating institutional investment in cryptocurrencies.
OKB, the OKX ecosystem’s native token, saw a sharp rally of over 30% today on the news and is currently trading around $104.
This article was generated with the assistance of AI workflows.
Source: https://thedefiant.io/news/tradfi-and-fintech/nyse-owner-ice-strategic-investment-okx