OKX brought Circle , Ripple and Standard Chartered’s venture arm onto its cap table as the crypto exchange broadens its push into stablecoin-based financial services.

On Oct. 6, the exchange's Chief Executive Officer, Star Xu, confirmed that the company completed a strategic investment from Circle, Qube Research & Technologies, Ripple and SC Ventures by Standard Chartered at a $25 billion pre-money valuation, extending a March round led by Intercontinental Exchange, the owner of the New York Stock Exchange. OKX did not disclose how much it raised in the latest transaction.

The valuation was unchanged from March, when ICE invested about $200 million. The new round instead adds shareholders whose businesses overlap with OKX’s expansion into stablecoins, payments, institutional liquidity and tokenized assets.

Xu said the exchange chose the new investors for their strategic fit rather than because it needed additional financing, pointing to its longer-term ambitions across payments and financial infrastructure.

“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.”

The investor lineup gives OKX closer ties to companies already supplying infrastructure across its platform.

Circle issues USDC, which is integrated across OKX. Ripple’s RLUSD stablecoin is available through the exchange’s unified order book, while QRT is a major institutional counterparty that provides liquidity and risk capacity. Standard Chartered, meanwhile, acts as custodian for BlackRock’s BUIDL tokenized Treasury fund used in an institutional collateral framework developed with OKX.

Those relationships make the fundraising more than a conventional capital injection. Ripple said the investment could deepen cooperation with OKX across stablecoins, payments and institutional markets, while Circle CEO Jeremy Allaire described the transaction as an extension of the companies’ existing relationship around USDC and onchain market infrastructure.

From an on-chain analytics and liquidity distribution perspective, developments around "Ripple and Circle backs OKX as it targets the next wave of stablecoin users" signal important shifts in network participation. Market participants observe that derivative funding metrics, exchange reserve telemetry, and smart contract protocol interactions reflect cautious accumulation alongside disciplined risk hedging across the sector.

Technical research analysts at CryptoAce VIP note that high-density order book clusters and volume-weighted average price (VWAP) benchmarks near recent consolidation floors will serve as pivotal indicators. Market observers are advised to cross-examine telemetry on verified block explorers before making capital allocations.

Editorial Fact-Check & Verification Note: This briefing was curated, corroborated, and synthesized by the CryptoAce VIP Editorial Desk. Readers following "Ripple and Circle backs OKX as it targets the next wave of stablecoin users" are encouraged to review the full primary source coverage linked below for complete historical context, direct quotes, and official statements.