Circle, Ripple and Hedge Fund QRT Back Crypto Exchange OKX at $25 Billion Valuation

Stablecoin issuer Circle, Ripple, Standard Chartered’s investment arm SC Ventures and London-based hedge fund Qube Research & Technologies (QRT) have put new money into crypto exchange OKX at a $25 billion valuation, Bloomberg reported on Tuesday.

The new money adds to a round OKX raised earlier this year, according to Bloomberg. On March 5, NYSE parent Intercontinental Exchange (ICE) announced a strategic investment in the exchange at the same $25 billion valuation. ICE did not publish its terms, and Bloomberg put the check at roughly $200 million. ICE’s release said it would receive a seat on OKX’s board.

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The new capital arrives as OKX and ICE prepare to trade tokenized U.S. equities through OKXICE, the 50-50 joint venture they announced in June.

OKXICE published a notice dated Oct. 4 listing 63 stock tokens, among them Tesla, Microsoft and JPMorgan, that it intends to offer under the innovation exemption the SEC granted Sept. 17, which allows onchain trading of tokenized stocks for five years. The tokens would trade around the clock against one of three stablecoins, one of them Circle’s USDC. The notice does not give a launch date.

Bloomberg said the round brought in existing OKX partners alongside QRT. OKX named Standard Chartered a third-party custodian for its institutional business in October 2024.

QRT became independent of Credit Suisse in 2018. Bloomberg reported that the quant firm runs a crypto fund called Moebius, with roughly $1 billion under management as of 2025, and has invested in algorithmic trading software maker Tread.fi.

“QRT’s investment reflects our confidence in OKX and the long-term growth of digital assets and 24/7 markets,” Thomas Eaton, QRT’s quantitative trading director, said in a statement.

For OKX, the raise “focuses on strengthening OKX’s long-term market infrastructure,” Haider Rafique, the exchange’s global managing partner, said in an emailed statement to Bloomberg.

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