OKX said it has no plan to rush into U.S. public markets. Speaking at the Digital Asset Summit in New York, global managing partner and chief marketing officer Haider Rafique said the exchange would only go public when it is confident it can deliver value back to shareholders. If that confidence is not there, he said, there is no reason to pursue a listing.
The remarks come as OKX pushes ahead with global expansion and tokenized finance. The company recently secured a strategic investment tied to Intercontinental Exchange, the parent of the New York Stock Exchange, in a deal that valued OKX at $25 billion. Rafique said the round was priced conservatively on purpose. In his view, the company could justify a higher valuation based on revenue growth, licenses, and assets, but the lower pricing was meant to support long-term shareholder returns.
Weak crypto listings remain a warning sign
Rafique linked OKX’s caution to the uneven record of crypto firms in public markets. He said he had bought one share of a major listed company and that position was down 50%. He called that kind of performance bad for the sector itself. While he did not name the company, the report noted that Coinbase, the largest U.S.-listed crypto exchange, has seen sharp volatility since its 2021 debut and still trades nearly 50% below its IPO price.
He also warned against treating public listings the way the industry once treated ICOs, or the way it handled the 5 million tokens that were put into the market last year. In that scenario, he said, the industry would be in trouble. OKX’s message is clear: building the business comes before chasing a listing.
Global liquidity and a unified order book shape the strategy
Founded in Asia, OKX has grown into one of the world’s largest crypto trading platforms, with particular strength in derivatives. Unlike U.S.-centered rivals such as Coinbase and Kraken, OKX operates across Europe, Latin America, and Asia. That wider geographic reach gives it a broader liquidity base.
Rafique said that global footprint is central to the company’s push to expand further in the United States. International exchanges, he argued, benefit from deeper liquidity across time zones. He described OKX’s unified order book as a major competitive edge, especially during off-hours in U.S. markets.
ICE partnership supports tokenized asset plans
Beyond exchange trading, OKX is also targeting tokenized financial assets and blockchain-based infrastructure as its next growth area. According to Rafique, the partnership linked to ICE is expected to support efforts to bring equities and other traditional assets onchain, with OKX serving as a distribution layer for those products.
For now, the company’s position on an IPO remains unchanged: build first, list later. Rafique said OKX is being built over 20 to 30 years, framing any future public offering around durability rather than timing.