Last summer, Haider Rafique flew out to Atlanta to meet with the chairman of the company that owns the New York Stock Exchange. What was supposed to be a 30-minute chat turned into a four-hour marathon conversation, recalled Rafique, the global managing partner of corporate affairs at OKX, one of the world’s largest crypto exchanges.
Fast-forward a few months and what started as an informal chat became a series of meetings, intense due diligence, and eventually a mammoth deal. Intercontinental Exchange, the publicly-traded parent of the New York Stock Exchange, has invested in OKX at a $25 billion valuation and will take a seat on OKX’s board, the two firms announced on Thursday. Rafique declined to specify how much money…
