Original | Odaily Planet Daily (@OdailyChina)
Author | Wenser (@wenser 2010)
On the evening of March 5, Beijing time, according to Fortune, Intercontinental Exchange (ICE), the parent company of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), has invested in the cryptocurrency exchange OKX at a valuation of $25 billion. OKX will provide ICE with real-time cryptocurrency price data, and plans to relocate over 2,000 employees to the United States to promote its tokenized stock trading plans, with plans to open tokenized stock and derivatives trading on the NYSE starting in the second half of 2026. Following this news, OKB briefly broke through 120 USDT and has now fallen back to 106 US dollars, with a 24-hour increase of 35%.
This is not ICE's first venture into crypto assets; it previously announced the establishment of its own blockchain-based tokenized securities trading infrastructure and invested in the prediction market platform Polymarket. Now, with ICE directly investing in OKX, it marks a shift from "testing the waters" to "acquisition" for traditional financial giants. In the context of the AI wave increasing the valuations of traditional tech stocks, the NYSE is no longer satisfied with the existing landscape but is attempting to reshape the trading model of global capital markets by leveraging the technology and user base of leading CEXs.
The collaboration between the world's largest stock exchange and the second-largest cryptocurrency platform not only signifies the accelerated integration of the two systems but will also build a new capital bridge between CeFi and TradFi.
ICE Makes Another Bold Bet, Aiming to Invest in Future Trading Methods
Although ICE currently refuses to disclose the specific amount of investment in OKX or the investment terms, the $25 billion valuation provides a great start for OKX's potential IPO in the future. (Odaily note: The first publicly traded cryptocurrency exchange, Coinbase (COIN), currently has a market capitalization of $55 billion, which is 2.2 times that of OKX's post-investment valuation)
With more details emerging, we are also gaining insight into the deep integration plans between ICE and OKX:
On the personnel preparation front, OKX's Global Corporate Affairs General Manager Haider Rafique stated that OKX plans to relocate up to 2,000 out of its 5,000 employees to the United States, “especially to support the trading plan for tokenized stocks and other assets of ICE, we will definitely invest heavily in the United States.” This feature is expected to officially launch in the second half of 2026.
Regarding high-level decision-making, OKX CEO Star expressed that the Intercontinental Exchange (ICE) will join the company’s board of directors, with both parties possibly exploring areas such as tokenized securities and the digitization of traditional assets, including researching how to connect securities more efficiently to global investors through digital infrastructure while complying with the governance and regulatory frameworks of traditional exchanges. The collaboration between digital asset technology and traditional financial institutions may become an important direction for future financial market development.
If previously OKX was merely a CEX active in the crypto-native market, with ICE's entry, it not only gains financial support but can also continue to penetrate the US market and clear away a series of restrictions and obstacles related to policies, audits, and applications for future crypto IPOs in the US.
As for the main reason behind ICE's bold investment, it might relate to the penetration rate of cryptocurrencies.
According to existing data, the global cryptocurrency population is at least 650 to 700 million people. This means that approximately 8-9% of the global population, or about 20-22% of internet-using adults, own or have used crypto assets. In the United States, this number is around 55 to 70 million people, with: 18-34 years old (young group) being the absolute majority at about 40-45%; 35-54 years old (middle-aged group) about 30-35%; and 55 and above about 15-20%.
There is no doubt that with Trump's rise to power and a series of crypto-friendly policies introduced, the penetration rate of cryptocurrencies in the United States and even globally is rapidly increasing. For ICE Group and the NYSE, these individuals represent a potentially huge incremental market.
It is undeniable that while the NYSE may be professional in stock trading, OKX, with years of deep industry involvement in cryptocurrency trading, has more say in this area. The deep meaning behind ICE's investment in OKX lies not only in packaging its listed assets for placement on OKX's shelf but also in quickly absorbing various trading technologies and rich market operation experiences from OKX, rapidly building its own on-chain trading ecosystem, with the grand vision of “making trading stocks tokens easy for everyone.” This is also the aspect that ICE emphasized in its external statement—"the two companies share a common vision for the future."
Thus, the strong alliance between ICE and OKX, through "the price presentation of crypto assets," integrates the cryptocurrency trading system into ICE's regulatory and risk management framework, allowing both to utilize OKX’s market depth to connect to ICE Group's compliance, clearing, risk control, and institutional distribution conveniences.
Compared to Coinbase, which has been obsessed with building an "everything exchange" but remains superficial, the investment cooperation between ICE Group and OKX may represent a more suitable solution for the cryptocurrency and traditional financial industries— the former providing a complete infrastructure for on-chain trading, clearing, settlement, custody, and capital formation; the latter seamlessly bringing 120 million users into ICE's futures market and the NYSE's tokenized stock trading ecosystem.
The collaboration also presents a new competitive challenge for rivals—how to coexist with a traditional securities exchange that is both an enforcer and a player? In the future, we may soon see different CEXs delivering different answers.
Conclusion: We are Taking Bold Steps into the "Full On-Chain Trading Era"
With ICE's investment in OKX, we can clearly see that giants in both the traditional financial industry and the cryptocurrency industry are desperately seeking new increments while consolidating their existing industry moats.
For one of the largest stock exchanges in the world, ICE, and the NYSE, the most active trading groups and the best gathering place for high-net-worth individuals with massive assets are undoubtedly cryptocurrency exchanges. What they are competing for is not just the number of users on the digital level, but the gateway to a new generation of capital markets.
As blockchain technology matures, the era of on-chain trading may be arriving soon. And now, we, as "esteemed users of ICE and the NYSE," are the pioneers and vanguards of trading and investment.
Recommended reading:
NYSE Plans to Launch 24/7 Tokenized Stock Trading, Rivals Left in Confusion
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