Interpretation of the Intercontinental Exchange's investment in #OKX

First of all, congratulations to #OKX for obtaining investment from the Intercontinental Exchange. Speaking of the Intercontinental Exchange, many may not be familiar with it; it is the parent company of the New York Stock Exchange. Many may also not be familiar with the New York Stock Exchange, but if we mention that it plans to tokenize U.S. stocks and enable 24/7 trading, it should ring a bell for most.

(This is the tweet I'm quoting)

Although OKX did not disclose how much was invested, the valuation is based on $25 billion. What does this mean? The first publicly listed cryptocurrency exchange in the U.S., Coinbase, currently has a market capitalization of $55.17 billion. At its current valuation, OKX is already equivalent to half of Coinbase. I believe that OKX's trading revenue (from trading fees alone) should be higher than $COIN, but considering the valuation is half of Coinbase, OKX's total revenue should be more than half of COIN.

Coinbase's total revenue for 2025 is estimated to be around $7.2 billion, with USDC contributing about $1.35 billion. Therefore, I personally estimate OKX's annual revenue to be between $3 billion to $5 billion, though this is not the most important point.

By the way, Circle's current valuation is $24.76 billion, and OKX's valuation is not much different from $CRCL.

So why did the Intercontinental Exchange invest in OKX?

While there could be many answers, I personally think the biggest possibility is the tokenization of U.S. stocks.

The New York Stock Exchange is already preparing to tokenize U.S. stocks, and as we mentioned, the NYSE itself will not face users directly; trading will certainly be carried out through broker-dealers. Thus, where there are cryptocurrency exchanges, especially leading ones, is a more suitable place to sell tokenized U.S. stocks.

It is worth noting that the Intercontinental Exchange has also invested in Coinbase, Bakkt, and Polymarket. These three companies are compliant with U.S. regulations, and their user bases are primarily in the U.S. These users may not have much interest in the tokenization of U.S. stocks, as it is quite easy to open an account locally, and there is no actual need to buy U.S. stocks on a token exchange.

The largest sales will certainly be in regions outside the U.S. With Robinhood and Kraken in Europe, one of the largest regions for cryptocurrencies is Asia, which OKX is well positioned to cover. Given the recent negotiations over U.S. stock tokenization sales, it appears that the biggest winner on the table is OKX.

Behind this is not just a compliant company, but one of the largest securities exchanges in the U.S., with its subsidiary preparing to sell all U.S. stocks on the blockchain. I estimate that OKX is just taking a step to cover Asia.

In addition to the tokenization of U.S. stocks, there may also be synchronous ICOs and IPOs for publicly listed companies in the future. I wonder if anyone remembers that Coinbase had compliant ICOs; in the future, it may not be impossible for OKX to help companies in the U.S. or other countries conduct ICOs.

Finally, investment does not equal acquisition, but after the Intercontinental Exchange's investment in OKX, there are likely still two moves to make:

The first step: U.S. compliance. OKX has been focusing on compliance for quite some time; many, including myself, believe it is part of the pre-IPO planning, but it is also in preparation for obtaining a U.S. license.

The second step: likely an IPO in the U.S. The information I previously received about OKX's IPO suggests it should happen around 2026 (with the possibility of delays). I posted a tweet about it before, where K stands for Kraken, G stands for Gemini, and the one whose initial cannot be mentioned is OKX.

I posted this article in March 2025. Kraken submitted its S-1 in November 2025 and will go public in the first quarter of 2026. Gemini submitted its S-1 before June and will be listed in September. The fourth company starting with B will require some more time, but it is still in planning.

End.

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