Crypto exchange OKX valuation hits $25 billion after NYSE parent invests

By Ateev Bhandari and Arasu Kannagi Basil

March 5 (Reuters) - OKX, one of the world's largest cryptocurrency exchanges, was valued at $25 billion after it received a minority investment from Intercontinental Exchange ICE.N, the NYSE parent said on Thursday.

The investment, which values OKX well above recent market entrants Bullish BLSH.N and Gemini GEMI.O, underscores how major Wall Street institutions are racing to develop digital-asset infrastructure as crypto evolves into a key segment of mainstream finance.

Some details about the strategic tie-up:

• ICE will license OKX's spot crypto prices and launch U.S.-regulated futures contracts.

• OKX will become a distributor of ICE's U.S. futures and tokenized equities markets to more than 120 million people globally.

• The investment follows ICE's recent stake in Polymarket, the world's largest prediction market.

• Analysts say the crypto industry may have reached an inflection point that could mark the end of the bear market after U.S. President Donald Trump signaled support for the Clarity Act bill on Tuesday.

• "There was a time window to get Clarity done. It's looking more and more challenging as time goes by and we get closer to midterms. Maybe we should have accepted the market structure bill and then pushed amendments later on," OKX Global Managing Partner Haider Rafique told Reuters.

• OKX rival Kraken's banking unit became the first U.S. digital-asset bank to gain access to the Federal Reserve's payments system through a limited-purpose ​account on Wednesday, marking a major win for an industry that has for years sought access to the Fed's trillions of dollars of payment rails.

• "I think it's very likely we will go in that direction in the future, and I hope it doesn't take us six years to do it," Rafique said.

• ICE, which was also an early investor in Coinbase COIN.O, will get a seat on OKX board. The terms of the investment were not disclosed.