Ripple and Circle backs OKX as it targets the next wave of stablecoin users

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.

He stated:

“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.”

Stablecoin firms move onto OKX’s cap table

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.

QRT’s participation adds an institutional trading component. The quantitative investment manager already works with OKX on liquidity and new markets, while SC Ventures gives the exchange another link to a global bank as crypto companies compete to bring traditional financial assets and payment flows onto blockchain networks.

The composition of the round also helps explain why OKX accepted new investors without securing a higher valuation seven months after ICE bought in. The company is effectively adding partners positioned across several layers of the financial stack it wants to build, from stablecoin issuance and custody to liquidity and payments.

OKX Money targets users beyond crypto trading

That expansion moved into consumer payments on Tuesday with the launch of OKX Money, a standalone app designed to let customers save, send and spend dollar-backed stablecoins.

According to OKX, users in participating markets can fund accounts using more than 50 supported currencies and hold USDG, USDC or USDT.

The app combines stablecoin balances with global transfers and virtual or physical cards, while OKX says it charges no foreign-exchange fee or conversion markup when customers make purchases in another currency.

Eligible customers can also earn up to 10% annually on qualifying USDG balances without staking or lockups, while a loyalty program offers up to 10% cashback on eligible card purchases. Availability, rates and features vary by market and customer eligibility.

The target market extends well beyond existing exchange users. OKX said roughly 70% of the people it wants to reach through Money have never used a crypto application, prompting the company to keep the underlying blockchain infrastructure largely out of the user experience.

That puts OKX into a different competitive arena from the exchange business that built its global customer base. Stablecoin providers, crypto platforms and fintech companies are increasingly competing for consumers who want dollar exposure, cross-border transfers and card payments without necessarily wanting to trade digital assets.

OKX is initially focusing on participating markets where currency volatility, banking access and foreign-exchange costs can make holding or spending dollars difficult. The company said it will expand gradually rather than make the service immediately available across all of the more than 30 jurisdictions where it operates under regulatory frameworks.

The commercial test will be whether OKX can turn an infrastructure advantage and a large crypto customer network into everyday financial activity. Winning users who have never touched crypto requires different distribution, compliance and customer-support capabilities from running a trading venue.

That challenge also raises the stakes for the new investors. Circle and Ripple want broader stablecoin distribution, QRT benefits from deeper institutional markets, and Standard Chartered has been expanding its exposure to digital-asset infrastructure. OKX now has to show those relationships can generate payment volumes and customer adoption beyond the trading activity that built the exchange.