
X Layer, OKX's EVM-compatible Layer 2 blockchain, launched Exchange OS, a new upgrade that allows users to deploy their own crypto markets.
According to the official announcement from X Layer, the upgrade enables developers, institutions, and ecosystem participants to create spot, perpetual, and outcome markets with the same infrastructure stack powering OKX.
"Exchange OS is designed to address one of the biggest structural limitations in on-chain finance today: fragmented infrastructure," the team wrote. "Builders still face the same tradeoff — rely on centralized infrastructure or rebuild complex exchange systems from scratch."
X Layer said it aims to solve this dilemma by creating a shared market infrastructure that provides a shared environment offering flexibility around design, structure, risk controls, and compliance.
Exchange OS does this by moving core exchange functions, such as matching, margining, liquidation, settlement, and risk management, to the protocol layer. Users will be able to configure their own models in a permissionless manner through the X Layer Improvement Proposal for Exchange OS (XIP-Exchange OS).
Traders can also benefit from having a unified account and margin system across spot, perpetuals, and outcome markets on Exchange OS, the announcement said.
"A single market view — whether around AI, macro events, sports, or tokenized assets — can be expressed across multiple market structures using the same pool of capital," the team said.
To commemorate the release of Exchange OS, X Layer said it will launch the first venue on top of the upgrade next month.
"In June, we will launch 2026 World Cup Outcomes, a simulated outcome market deployed directly on the infrastructure," the X Layer team said. "We wanted to build on the system ourselves before opening it more broadly because the best way to demonstrate open market infrastructure is to use it in production first."
The 2026 World Cup Outcomes is a simulated prediction market venue likely geared towards the 23rd FIFA World Cup jointly hosted by Canada, Mexico, and the U.S. The tournaments launch on June 11.
The platform is currently rolling out in stages, with a broader launch planned over time through the XIP-Exchange OS.
"The next chapter of onchain finance should not be built by a single platform — it should be built by anyone with a market worth creating," the team added.
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