Intercontinental Exchange (ICE), the parent company of the New York Stock Exchange, has shown far greater interest in cryptocurrencies recently compared to previous years. First, it invested $2 billion in Polymarket, pushing the valuation of the prediction market leader to $9 billion. Shortly after, it invested in the cryptocurrency trading platform OKX, valuing one of the most familiar trading platforms in the Chinese-speaking region at approximately $25 billion.
OKX’s impending listing in the United States is no longer news. With ICE’s investment and the upcoming U.S. listing, as Fortune noted, OKX is transitioning from an East Asian offshore trading platform to a globally compliant trading hub operating in the United States.
In short, the United States will be OKX’s new home.
The interesting aspect is that in the United States, a market where the world’s largest trading platform, Binance, is largely absent, several giants are already preparing to make significant moves.
Coinbase, currently the undisputed leader among U.S. trading platforms, with BlackRock’s backing, has a CEO confident enough to challenge the entire industry.
Kraken, the second-largest compliant trading platform, is rumored to have an IPO in the first quarter.
Upbit is also set to list in the United States soon, with exceptionally strong profitability—it can recover from a $36 million hack in just two weeks.
Of course, there are also already listed platforms with relatively low visibility, such as Gemini and Bullish, as well as OKX, which is about to go public.
So, is the $25 billion valuation expensive?
According to BlockBeats’ data compilation for 2025 trading platforms, OKX’s $25 billion valuation does not appear to be expensive.
Coinbase’s spot trading volume is similar to OKX’s, but it has almost no derivatives trading volume. With a market cap of $55 billion, it is twice that of OKX.
Kraken lags far behind OKX in both spot and derivatives trading volumes, with a valuation of $20 billion, only 20% lower than OKX’s. Upbit, while the largest in South Korea, lacks a derivatives segment and appears far less profitable than OKX, with a valuation of $10.7 billion—OKX’s valuation is more than double that of Upbit.
Robinhood has 23 million users, but its disclosed crypto trading volume for 2025 is only $82 billion, making it incomparable.
Clearly, based on the data, $25 billion seems undervalued. Publicly available data shows OKX already has the largest user base, and this is without significant U.S. user penetration. Considering the user numbers of Coinbase and Kraken, OKX theoretically has tens of millions of new users to tap into.
In other words, the U.S. stock market is about to welcome a trading platform with a user base nearly twice that of Coinbase, significantly higher overall trading volume, but only half the valuation of Coinbase.
The exact timing of OKX’s listing remains unknown. Based on Polymarket’s indications, a listing this year seems unlikely. There have been rumors suggesting OKX’s listing might be delayed until 2028. Hopefully, that year will be far more promising for cryptocurrencies than the present.
Hope depends on the narrative, which is precisely what ICE’s investment focuses on. Reports indicate that the investment aims to advance blockchain-based stock trading, specifically stock tokenization.
OKX’s founder and CEO, Star, shares the same view. He stated that OKX plans to provide its global user base of over 120 million with access to ICE’s U.S. futures market and the New York Stock Exchange’s (NYSE) tokenized stock market, exploring the integration of traditional financial markets with digital asset infrastructure within a compliant framework.
The integration of TradFi and Crypto is no longer a question of if, but to what extent. Several years ago, one platform foresaw this trend, realizing that the biggest future competitor would be Nasdaq. It aimed to build an on-chain Nasdaq and achieved a valuation of $32 billion. Unfortunately, it took a wrong step, but the on-chain Nasdaq is an inevitable path for Crypto. Now, it’s a matter of who will take the lead in this new narrative.
OKX’s journey has certainly had its twists and turns, but it remains a compelling story.
It’s still the story of a 41-year-old Chinese entrepreneur who founded the company in 2013, underwent three brand transformations, grew so large that it faced regulatory scrutiny in multiple countries, had to pay a $500 million fine to the U.S. Department of Justice, and ultimately rang the bell in the United States.
