From Decrypt · By Tyler Warner
Morning Minute is a daily newsletter written by Tyler Warner. The analysis and opinions expressed are his own and do not necessarily reflect those of Decrypt. And check out our daily news show 'FOMO HOUR' covering all of the top stories and market action.
GM!
Today’s top news:
Crypto majors fall 3-5% after evening selloff; BTC at $83.6k
Over $550M in crypto longs liquidated, led by ETH
BTC ETFs see $119M in inflows, but $202M in outflows for ETH
OKX raises at $25B with funds from Circle, Ripple and others
Abstract announces it is shutting down its L2 on December 15
BitcoinBTC · USD$83,487−2.11%Sep 30Oct 2Oct 4Oct 5Oct 7$86.8k$85.7k$84.6k$83.4k24h HighHigh$86,64824h LowLow$83,542VolVol$1.6BMarket projectionsOdds by MyriadThis weekBelow $84,000Below $84k58% chance→Buy Bitcoin with USDTPowered by JupiterPrice data by CoinGeckoCoinGeckoMore Bitcoin news and projections →💰 OKX Raises at $25B From Circle, Ripple, and StanChart
OKX took new investment from Circle, Ripple, Standard Chartered’s venture arm, and trading firm Qube Research at a $25 billion pre-money valuation. The amount wasn’t disclosed. It extends a March investment from Intercontinental Exchange, the owner of the New York Stock Exchange, at the same price.
This round of backers is quite notable for OKX. Circle issues USDC. Ripple runs payments and issues RLUSD. Standard Chartered holds the assets behind BlackRock’s tokenized Treasury fund under an arrangement with OKX. Qube is already an OKX client providing trading capacity. Every one of them either competes with where OKX is headed or already does business with it.
That’s the strategy. Star Xu said the exchange was the starting point and the company is becoming a broader financial technology platform where customers hold, spend, invest, and grow money in one place. Buying into the people who own the pieces beats building them.
The ICE joint venture is the clearest evidence. OKXICE filed Sunday to launch round-the-clock trading in tokenized shares of 63 U.S. companies, running on OKX’s own blockchain and settled with stablecoins. The same week, OKX launched a consumer app paying 10% on dollar stablecoins, and Xu said AI now handles roughly 95% of the company’s code at a cost of $10 million a month.
Whether tokenized stocks work is unsettled. Macquarie said this week it depends on attracting enough liquidity to keep prices reliable at 3am on a Sunday, and that the SEC framework being temporary makes institutions reluctant to connect their systems. Both Macquarie and TD Securities expect early demand to come from retail, since institutions already have cheap access to U.S. stocks.
So where does this leave us? Every major exchange is making similar bets. Kraken’s parent is spending billions to become financial infrastructure. Coinbase added perps, tokenized stocks, and Bitcoin loans. It’s clear that tokenized stocks integrated within crypto trading infrastructure (perps, 24/7 trading) will be a key theme of this cycle. And it will raise the market cap for those who figure it out, and lead the sector, substantially.