Morning Minute: The NYSE Just Bought Into A Major Crypto Exchange

GM!

Today’s top news:

• Crypto majors red as oil soars, stocks sell off; BTC dips under $70k
• NYSE parent invests in OKX at $25B valuation, OKB jumps
• STRC moves another 1.3M shares, raising proceeds for 700 BTC
• Situational Awareness fund reveals $1B in Bitcoin miner positions
• Pudgy Penguins face trademark infringement lawsuit from Penguin brand

🏛️ The NYSE Just Bought Into A Major Crypto Exchange

The world’s most famous stock exchange is no longer watching crypto from the sidelines.

📌 What Happened

Intercontinental Exchange (ICE), the publicly traded parent company of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), has invested in OKX at a $25B valuation and will take a board seat.

ICE’s investment amount is still undisclosed.

As part of the deal:

• OKX will provide ICE with a live crypto price feed
• OKX users will gain the ability to trade tokenized NYSE-listed stocks and derivatives, with that feature expected to launch in the second half of 2026.

ICE is simultaneously building its own separate blockchain-based trading platform using stablecoins for onchain settlement and 24/7 trading.

OKB, OKX’s native token, surged more than 38% on the news, extending what was already a massive 2025 rally fueled by a $7.6B token burn (50% of the circulating supply).

Notably, Haider Rafique (OKX Managing Partner) also said he plans to relocate up to 2,000 of OKX’s 5,000 employees to the US.

🗣️ What They’re Saying

 - Haider Rafique, OKX Global Managing Partner of Corporate Affairs, via Fortune

🧠 Why It Matters

Two major TradFi moves for crypto over the past two days.

First, Kraken gets a Federal Reserve master account. Now, NYSE’s parent company takes a board seat inside OKX.

The pieces of a crypto-native financial system are assembling faster than most people realize and is being overshadowed by the bear market.

For OKX users, the deal is a genuine product unlock. They now get access to tokenized NYSE stocks and derivatives, accessible directly from inside their crypto wallet.

From a token perspective, the market spoke clearly with OKB’s 38% surge.

For OKX specifically, the IPO math just got much more interesting. The company has floated a US listing before, but it was always theoretical. Now it has a $25B valuation anchor, a board seat held by the NYSE’s parent, and a deal structure that puts tokenized equities on its platform.

That’s a much stronger story than they had last week.

But perhaps the most important takeaway from this announcement came from ICE’s VP who said the real competition isn’t CME or Nasdaq - it’s DeFi protocols and super apps. That confirms the “apps over infrastructure” thesis that some sharps (like my cohost Mando) have touted for the next crypto market leg.

The institutions are piling in - and they want access to crypto apps. Very interesting indeed…

🌎 Macro Crypto and Markets

• Crypto majors are red as oil soars to $85; BTC -4% at $70k; ETH -4% at $2,040; SOL -6% at $87
• Kite (+10%), WBT (+5%) and M (+4%) led top movers
• The FDIC, FRB and OCC issued joint guidance stating that tokenized securities should receive the same treatment as non-tokenized
• OKB surged 38%+ following the ICE investment news, extending its 2025 run that was ignited by OKX’s $7.6B token burn in August, before retracing
• Cardano went live for payments at Spar grocery stores in Switzerland, adding ADA to the list of crypto assets accepted at physical retail
• Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse backed Trump and the CLARITY Act, signaling continued industry alignment behind the crypto market structure bill moving through Congress
• ZeroHash applied for an OCC national trust bank charter, seeking federal authorization for stablecoin issuance, custody, and settlement
• Revolut filed for a US national bank charter, seeking full-service banking for American customers with checking and savings accounts
• John Daghita was arrested for allegedly stealing $46M in crypto from the US Marshals Service, identified first by ZachXBT
• BlockFills’ Bitcoin was frozen by a judge amid a dispute with Dominion Capital, marking another legal entanglement for the institutional crypto trading firm.
• Situational Awareness LP, the $5.5B hedge fund run by ex-OpenAI researcher Leopold Aschenbrenner, revealed ~$1B in Bitcoin miner positions (turned AI power infra plays) in its Q4 2025 13F, with holdings in Core Scientific, IREN, Riot Platforms, Cipher Mining, and Bitdeer

Corporate Treasuries & ETFs

• The Bitcoin ETFs saw $228M in net outflows on Thursday, reversing a 3-day inflow streak with over $1.1B in inflows
• STRC moved another 1.28M shares on Thursday, giving Saylor capital to buy another 701 BTC
• Publicly listed Bitcoin miners have sold more than 15,000 BTC since October
• Core Scientific secured up to $1B in financing from Morgan Stanley via a $500M initial loan with an accordion feature as it converts all 10 of its BTC mining sites into AI data centers
• Kazakhstan’s central bank plans to allocate up to $350M from its FX and gold reserves into crypto-linked assets, starting as soon as April or May

Meme Coin Tracker

• Meme majors were mostly red in line with majors; DOGE -3%, SHIB -2%, PEPE -3%, TRUMP -6%, PENGU -5%, SPX -8%, FARTCOIN -8%
• WAR (+66%), Lobstar (+20%) and WhiteWhale (+24%) led onchain movers

💰 Token, Airdrop & Protocol Tracker

• OpenAI released its newest model GPT-5.4, ranked better than Claude almost across the board
• Backpack Exchange announced that they hired former CFTC Commissioner Mark Wetjen as President of Backpack US
• Xstocks announced xChange allowing cross chain stock trading

🚚 What is happening in NFTs?

• NFT leaders were slightly red; Punks even at 29.9 ETH, Pudgy -3% at 4.32 ETH, BAYC -2% at 5.9 ETH; Hypurr’s even at 450 HYPE
• Del Mundos (+30%) and Beeple - Spring/Summer (+19%) led top movers
• Pudgy Penguins faces a trademark infringement lawsuit from Penguin Apparel Brand Owner, adding legal exposure to the collection's rapid brand expansion push.