Intercontinental Exchange acquired a minority stake in OKX, valuing it at $25 billion and securing a seat on the exchange’s board. The agreement licenses OKX’s spot crypto pricing to ICE, enables the launch of US-regulated futures contracts, and designates OKX as a distributor of ICE’s futures and tokenized equities to over 120 million users.

OKX’s enhanced valuation and institutional backing place it ahead of recent entrants like Bullish and Gemini, intensifying competition in digital-asset trading infrastructure. Bullish may need to accelerate product development, regulatory partnerships and market expansion to counter OKX’s boosted liquidity, user access and Wall Street alignment.