Intercontinental Exchange and OKX have launched a joint venture to build tokenised financial infrastructure.
It comes as traditional financial exchanges increasingly race to incorporate blockchain technology and digital assets into mainstream global trading markets.
Former New York governor Andrew Cuomo, who will co-chair the joint venture alongside Intercontinental Exchange, praised the future impact of the partnership.
“This partnership brings together OKX’s world-class blockchain technology and ICE’s trusted market infrastructure to help build a more modern, transparent, and resilient financial system for the future,” he said.
He explained that he was personally excited by the prospect of the societal impact that blockchain technology can lead to regarding the democratisation of finance.
The 50-50 venture intends to operate as a United States registered broker-dealer and futures commission merchant, subject to regulatory approvals.
This structure will allow OKX’s 120 million retail customers to access Intercontinental Exchange futures and New York Stock Exchange tokenised equities markets.
The initiative follows a strategic minority investment made by Intercontinental Exchange into OKX earlier this year, which valued the cryptocurrency exchange at approximately 25 billion dollars.
Traditional market operators like Nasdaq and CME Group are also expanding their digital asset capabilities as institutional demand for tokenisation grows.
United States politicians from both major parties have started to embrace the digital asset sector more openly during Donald Trump’s second presidential term.
The industry has amassing a 200 million dollar war chest to support pro-crypto candidates in upcoming political elections.
Meanwhile, major American banks are also developing tokenised deposit networks to automate corporate cash movements and international liquidity management.
The joint venture will immediately seek the necessary regulatory licences to begin its commercial operations, Mr Cuomo added.
