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Is OKX going to list in the US?
On June 23, 2025, when Yueqi Yang, a crypto reporter for The Information, revealed that global crypto giant OKX was considering an IPO in the United States, the entire market's nerve endings were instantly ignited. This news was like a lightning strike, cutting through the calm of the crypto world. The market's reaction was almost instinctive - the platform token OKB, which is closely linked to the OKX ecosystem, saw its price violently pulled up by more than 15% within an hour, breaking through the psychological high ground of $55.
The logic revealed behind this rumor-driven surge is far more profound than the K-line chart. It clearly shows that, in the eyes of investors, the valuation of OKX has formed an inseparable symbiotic relationship with the fate of its issued crypto asset OKB, which has a market value of over $3 billion. The value of a company seeking to be listed on the New York Stock Exchange or Nasdaq should be measured by Wall Street's traditional standards such as price-to-earnings ratio and revenue growth. But the market's frenzy is declaring that the protagonist of OKX's capital drama is not only the company itself, but also the token empire it has created. This is the unique dilemma and the biggest gamble faced by OKX. When a company tries to embed itself in the world's most mature and stringent capital market system, is its inherent "crypto original sin" gene a ticket to the future or a shackle? Especially for OKX, which has just struggled ashore from the regulatory storm with a "guilty body," knocking on the door of Wall Street at this moment is not only the ultimate test of its transformation determination, but also foreshadows that the entire crypto industry is standing at the crossroads from the "Wild West" to the financial palace. The road back in the shadows
Why did OKX choose to put the IPO on the agenda at this moment? Not long ago, the operating entity of OKX just reached an amazing settlement with the US Department of Justice (DOJ). It admitted that for seven years, it "intentionally violated anti-money laundering (AML) laws" and "operated an unlicensed money transmission business," and paid a huge price of more than $500 million for this. The investigation documents paint a shocking picture: OKX's platform was used to process huge amounts of suspicious transactions, and its employees even openly instructed US users to circumvent the platform's KYC process. This costly settlement could have been the end of OKX's American story, just like its competitor Binance was forced to completely withdraw from the US market after paying an even more staggering fine. But OKX chose a more difficult path - rebirth from the ashes. In April 2025, just two months after paying the fine, OKX announced its return to the United States in a high-profile manner. This move is more of a carefully choreographed "reputation repair campaign" than a business expansion. OKX has used almost all textbook crisis public relations methods: appointing Roshan Robert, a former Barclays Bank director with a deep traditional financial background, as the CEO of its US business; setting up a new regional headquarters in San Jose in the heart of Silicon Valley; its management, including the always low-key founder Xu Mingxing, also took an unprecedented stance to declare its compliance commitment to the outside world, striving to become the "global compliance gold standard." From this perspective, OKX's return strategy is interlocked, and its ultimate goal is obvious. The IPO is not just for raising funds, but the ultimate chapter of this "reputation repair campaign." If it can be successfully listed, it means that it has passed the joint "big test" of the SEC, top investment banks, and public auditors, which is equivalent to obtaining an undeniable "health certificate" from the system it once despised. Accurately betting on the future of regulation
If the internal compliance reform of OKX is the "endogenous driving force" for its consideration of an IPO, then the subtle changes in the US macro regulatory environment have provided a crucial "external pulling force" for this gamble. OKX's choice to launch the IPO plan in 2025 is by no means a whim, but a precise prediction of the policy direction. The most significant change comes from the political level. After the new US government came to power in 2025, its attitude towards the cryptocurrency industry has obviously eased, changing the previous tough "law enforcement first" strategy and creating a relatively relaxed external environment for the industry. However, for complex platforms like OKX that focus on financial derivatives trading, the softening of law enforcement attitudes alone is not enough, it needs fundamental changes at the level of the legal framework. This is exactly the core issue that the (Financial Innovation and Technology Act of the 21st Century) (FIT21) and its updated version - the (Digital Asset Market Clarity Act) (CLARITY Act) of 2025 - are trying to solve. The (CLARITY Act) aims to establish a clear and comprehensive regulatory framework for the chaotic US digital asset market, and its core lies in clearly dividing the jurisdiction of the SEC and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC). According to the draft bill, "digital commodities" will be mainly regulated by the CFTC. This division is tantamount to a timely rain for OKX, which excels in derivatives trading. Connecting these clues, a clear picture emerges. OKX's IPO plan is not a passive response to the existing legal environment, but a highly forward-looking strategic layout. It is betting that the (CLARITY Act), a law that is crucial to the industry, will eventually be passed. Considering the length and complexity of the IPO process, OKX chose to start preparing now to ensure that it can be one of the first exchanges to cross the finish line when the legislation is completed. Standing on the shoulders of predecessors
Of course, OKX is not the first crypto company to try to knock on the door of Wall Street. Before it, the listing paths of Coinbase and Circle had provided rich experience and profound lessons for those who came later. Coinbase, as an industry pioneer, exposed many problems in its direct listing in 2021: dual equity structure raised concerns about corporate governance, a single business model that heavily relies on retail transaction fees, and a high degree of binding between the stock price and the dramatic fluctuations of the crypto market, all of which became constraints on its valuation ceiling. In contrast, stablecoin USDC issuer Circle's traditional IPO in June 2025 was a model. Circle's success lies in its clear compliance narrative - positioning itself as the issuer of a "regulated digital dollar." Powerful on-chain data intuitively proved the great utility and market demand of its products, providing solid support for high valuations. As Bybit's analysis report pointed out, traditional investment banks "severely underestimated Circle's valuation," which shows that Wall Street's traditional valuation model has begun to fail in understanding crypto-native companies. Placing OKX between these two, its uniqueness is clear at a glance. Its business model is more diversified than Coinbase, especially in the high-profit derivatives field; but its regulatory history is far more complex than Coinbase and Circle. The most fundamental difference is the inseparable deep binding relationship between it and the native token OKB, which will be the ultimate "big test" it faces on Wall Street. Value weighing and ultimate test
Overall, OKX's IPO path is a difficult trade-off in three dimensions: compliance, token economics, and founder history. First of all, its core advantages lie in its strong global market position and product depth. As a giant with top-ranking global trading volume, OKX has more than 50 million users and extremely high market liquidity. Its real moat lies in the derivatives market - providing futures contracts with leverage up to 100 times and complex trading tools, making it the preferred platform for professional traders, and also bringing more stable sources of income. It is estimated that OKX's annual revenue is between $1 billion and $10 billion. However, its greatest advantage - the deeply integrated OKB token ecosystem - is also its greatest challenge. OKB is not just a platform currency, it has penetrated every corner of the OKX ecosystem, and is used for fee discounts, governance, and staking. More importantly, OKX promises to use 30% of its spot trading fee revenue to regularly repurchase and destroy OKB from the secondary market, thereby creating deflation and increasing the value of the token. This creates an unprecedented valuation problem in the context of an IPO. How does a listed company explain to its shareholders that its business model is so deeply bound to an independent, highly speculative crypto asset? When the company uses income that could be used for dividends to support the price of a token in the open market, how should this expenditure be accounted for? This creates a potential conflict of interest between listed company shareholders and OKB token holders. According to the SEC's guidance, OKX's "repurchase and destruction" plan is likely to make its token be regarded as a security. Finally, no matter how hard OKX tries to repair its image, its indelible history will still be the sword of Damocles hanging over its head. The $500 million settlement agreement and the past controversies of founder Xu Mingxing will be repeatedly scrutinized in the prospectus and due diligence, becoming a huge deduction for the pursuit of clean leadership backgrounds in the public market. When crypto giants embrace Wall Street
