Exclusive: NYSE parent company invests in crypto exchange OKX at $25 billion valuation as part of push into blockchain-based stocks

Last summer, Haider Rafique flew out to Atlanta to meet with the chairman of the New York Stock Exchange. What was supposed to be a 30-minute chat turned into a four-hour marathon conversation, recalled Rafique, the global managing partner of corporate affairs at OKX, one of the world’s largest crypto exchanges.

Fast-forward a few months and what started as an informal chat became a series of meetings, intense due diligence, and eventually a mammoth deal. Intercontinental Exchange, the publicly-traded parent company of the New York Stock Exchange, has invested in OKX at a $25 billion valuation and will take a seat on OKX’s board, the two firms announced on Thursday. Rafique declined to specify how much money Intercontinental Exchange put into OKX or the terms of the investment, but did tout the firms’ shared vision of the future.

“There was great chemistry in how we looked at the world and the future of tokenized securities, how derivatives should make it to the global stage, how TradFi [and] digital assets should merge together,” said Rafique, referring to his initial sit down with Jeffrey Sprecher, the chairman of the New York Stock Exchange.

The tie-up isn’t a pure venture play. OKX will provide Intercontinental Exchange with a live price feed of cryptocurrencies tradeable on its exchange. But even more significantly, OKX will let its users trade tokenized stocks and derivatives listed on the New York Stock Exchange in a feature likely to launch in the latter half of 2026. Tokenization refers to the process of taking financial assets and putting them into blockchain wrappers, which proponents say can reduce transaction fees, among other benefits. “This is not just a very casual investment,” said Rafique.

The injection of capital into OKX is a big commitment from the owner of the world’s marquee stock exchange, but it isn’t the first move that Intercontinental Exchange has made to keep pace with the rapidly shifting landscape in how people........

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