Wall Street's largest exchange operators are officially rewiring the plumbing of global capital markets. Intercontinental exchange, the parent company of the New York Stock Exchange, is going all in on digital infrastructure through a landmark 5050 JV with OKX and following ICE's investment in OKX at $25 billion valuation, this new U.S. broker dealer is designed to bring NYSE tokenized equities on chain bridging trade by with continuous 24/7 trading wall.
Joining us to dissect what's actually happening and the seismic shift in market structure is Roshan Robert U.S CEO OKX. Roshan, great to have you on. Thank you so much for joining me. Thanks for having me, Remy. Well, 2026 has been quite the year of announcements when it comes to partnerships between crypto native firms as well as trad fi.
But when it comes down to this JV between Ice as well as OKX. Tell us about the strategic significance here? Yes. So it's a partnership that brings together two behemoths in in finance, one on the crypto side and the other on, on on on on trad fi side. I tend to see this as, um, a handshake between the world's largest financial marketplace and one of the oldest and most trusted names in public blockchain finance.
Um, and what we're doing right now is to sort of really create an FCM and a broker dealer, uh, that will have the ability to distribute both, uh, futures products as well as tokenized equities. Um, I think the significance of this partnership is more than just, uh, a few products. Um, it is it is the significance is about the intent, uh, that goes behind, uh, some of the largest operators in trad fi and crypto coming together to create the infrastructure for future financial products.
And I think infrastructure is the key word here because 2026, we have seen plenty of progress when it comes to institutional adoption. So what does each team from both team trade Fi and DeFi bring to the table with this partnership? I think this is, you know, what we're seeing is a convergence of of both worlds, right.
Um, and and I, I'm hoping that we'll see the best of both worlds coming together. Since the financial crisis. Trad fi has built out, uh, robust regulatory controls, uh, you know, robust governance systems. And on the crypto side, you know, we've seen nimble innovation take place, right? Um, and, um, you know, key engineering around blockchain infrastructure.
So bringing both of these worlds together, uh, bodes well for the financial system in general. Yeah. So as we move forward, tell me about the timeline and what this will mean for both institutional as well as retail investors. I'll take a step back there. Um, you know, over the last ten years or so, um, you know, uh, crypto has, uh, conclusively and emphatically proven a few points.
I think the top on that list is the fact that, um, it is possible to build and scale a 24 over seven marketplace with controls and processes and governance, uh, set in a proper fashion. Right? Um, and as a corollary to that, we've also seen over the last ten years a great amount of adoption, uh, of these 24 over seven markets and, and the products that are run on these markets.
Um, so, um, you know, I think the future is about trade. Five firms also leaning in and building the infrastructure that can support 24 over seven markets. And I think the next few years is going to be all about that, how we can bring more real world assets to be traded on these 24 over seven markets that are backed by public blockchains.
Yeah. And I'm glad we're having this conversation at the New York Stock Exchange, because I don't think you can get as tread by as being here on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange. But we all know that 2026 has been a volatile year, and we've been seeing price action across all asset classes. Given all this volatility we see and markets don't actually sleep in reality when we're talking about Monday through Friday and weekends, just given all the events that transpire over the course of a week.
So when it comes to other trends out there, whether we're talking about tokenization or real world assets, give us your perspective on what's taking place not just in the US, but also overseas.
There's a lot of innovation taking place. There's a lot of interest today that the markets have on what's happening as far as legislation is concerned. And I'm speaking specifically about crypto legislation because, um, you know, and we have a big event coming up next week, which is, uh, the Senate vote.
Um, of course, there's there's a number of issues that still need to be resolved there. Um, the, uh, the price action for Bitcoin also is something that, you know, is impactful, uh, in general. And if you look at it, uh, that price action today that we are seeing, Bitcoin is hovering at around eight $80,000 level.
Uh, there's a lot of, uh, focus on, uh, geopolitics. There's a lot of focus on, um, you know, uh, on, on, on rates and, uh, how the fed will react next week. Um, there's a lot of focus, of course, on clarity act as well. So all of these, uh, you know, tend to sort of really impact price action as far as Bitcoin is concerned.
um, and, uh, but I think we have to look strategically in the long term and in the long term. Uh, I think there is enough momentum, uh, across most market participants to ensure that we have the right infrastructure built for 24 over seven markets and public blockchain, uh, infrastructure will play a big role there.
Yes. And finally, Roshan, before I let you go, tell us about some of the key milestones that are needed, in your opinion, for tokenized equities out there to build that deep institutional grade liquidity that is necessary when it comes to regulated markets? I think the first big milestone is the creation of the regulatory infrastructure.
And that is one of the areas where Ise and OKX are partnering, uh, in trying to sort of really build out an FCM and a broker dealer. Once that is done, then is the act of actually distributing these products. To the to. To the overall market. Right. Um. We we we live in an always on society. Remy. Right. So and this is a society that is constantly demanding for always on marketplaces.
Right. And products that can be accessed 24 over seven. Uh, so I'm, I'm, I have great faith and hope that, uh, you know, this this partnership that we have with the, with, with Ice is going to be a great big step in, in, uh, allowing the markets to access more products, uh, on blockchains. Yeah. And finally, before I let you go, one thing I thought of as you were speaking is that hindsight is 2020.
But when we look forward and look ahead, not just to the end of this year, we're looking five years from now. What is your vision for OKX five years from now? Um, that's that that's a long that's a lifetime in And for as far as crypto is concerned. But I think five years from now we will see a lot of products that are on blockchain marketplaces, right?
Like OKX, I hope to see large volumes of real world assets being traded by both retail participants as well as institutional participants. We hope to see more of a convergence into trade Fi. And all of that bodes well for financial markets in general. So I'm very hopeful to see this, this partnership go go forward in leaps and bounds, so to say.
Well Roshan, it was great having you on fintech TV. Hopefully you'll be back soon as we continue to watch these partnerships evolve. Thanks for joining me. Thank you. Cheers.
