Nine Big-Cap Issuers Hit "Do Not Tokenize" on OKX-ICE Platform

Nine publicly listed companies have formally objected to having their shares offered in tokenized form on the planned OKX-ICE TSV platform backed by crypto exchange OKX and Intercontinental Exchange (ICE), the parent of the New York Stock Exchange, according to an Oct. 15 notice from the venue. The objecting issuers are Cerebras Systems, AppLovin, Applied Digital, Rocket Lab, CoreWeave, Verizon Communications, Applied Optoelectronics, Broadcom and UnitedHealth Group. The notice did not disclose the reasons behind the objections.

The platform is the first major test of the Securities and Exchange Commission's innovation exemption, unveiled Sept. 17 after the Clarity Act stalled in the Senate. The exemption lets qualifying venues trade tokenized U.S. stocks without registering as exchanges. OKX-ICE TSV plans to operate around the clock using Uniswap v4 liquidity pools on OKX's XLayer blockchain, settling trades in stablecoins such as USDC and USDT. Tokens are created by a third party that holds underlying shares one-for-one through a registered broker-dealer, with holders entitled to the same dividends and voting rights as conventional shareholders, according to the notice.

The notice also outlines trade-offs for users. OKX-ICE TSV is not registered with the SEC, is not subject to Regulation NMS rules designed to ensure investors receive the best displayed prices, and is not required to provide fair access to all participants. Trading is capped at a small slice of each stock's normal volume, and administrators can upgrade the venue's smart contracts without advance notice. Nasdaq, which is not among the nine objecting issuers, has separately said it would opt its own shares out of the framework; a spokesperson told The Wall Street Journal that Nasdaq does not want its stock trading on a venue that does not show the best prices in real time or report trades to the consolidated tape.

Market participants said the objections amount to a venue-specific veto rather than a rejection of tokenization broadly. "This veto also seems to be venue-specific, as in companies being able to say: no, I don't want them offered on this venue, but I could permit/launch it somewhere else," CoinShares senior research associate Luke Nolan said. Robin Nordnes, CEO of trading validation platform Raiku, told Cointelegraph: "Issuers aren't objecting to the blockchain. They're objecting to not knowing what happens to their price once it trades there. On a public chain, the validator building the block sets the order. Until desks can measure their distance to that point, best execution is a promise, not a number." Misha Putiatin, co-founder of collateral markets platform Symbiotic, said companies need to see the "upside and a track record of efficient pricing" and that more "real-world data would help everyone assess the benefits and risks," pointing to initiatives such as the Depository Trust and Clearing Corporation's (DTCC) tokenization services as potential confidence builders.

More than $754 million in capital has moved onchain during the past 30 days, pushing the total across stablecoins and tokenized assets to $320 billion, according to OnchainBenchmark. Cointelegraph has approached OKX for comment on the ramifications of the objections but had not received a response by the time of publication.