✓ Official source
Apple and Meta push objections to tokens of their shares on the OKX-ICE venue to 67 companies, leaving crypto firms as the holdouts
⚪NeutralMajor issuers objecting to tokens of their shares is a setback for tokenized-stock venues, but it has no direct bearing on a specific coin.News sentiment, not financial advice. It reflects the likely impact of this news, not a price prediction.
Summary
Thirty-three U.S.-listed companies, including Microsoft, Alphabet, Goldman Sachs, Wells Fargo, Intel, Oracle, IBM, JPMorgan Chase, Coca-Cola and Dell, have now objected to tokenized versions of their shares trading on OKXICE TSV, the tokenized securities venue owned 50-50 by NYSE parent Intercontinental Exchange and OKX’s U.S. holding company, according to the venue’s notices and reporting by CoinDesk, Cointelegraph and Decrypt; the first nine were listed in a notice dated Oct. 15.
The notice lists Cerebras Systems, AppLovin, Applied Digital, Rocket Lab, CoreWeave, Verizon, Applied Optoelectronics, Broadcom and UnitedHealth without giving reasons; The Defiant reported that the first four had objected earlier, and The Block said eight of the nine were among the 63 tickers OKXICE named on Oct. 4 as stocks it intended to offer, while Cerebras was not.
Under the SEC’s Sept. 17 innovation exemption, a venue that wants to list a company’s stock tokenized by a third party must notify that company, which then has 30 calendar days to object, and a timely objection bars that venue from offering the token, according to The Block and The Defiant.
A spokeswoman for Applied Optoelectronics told The Wall Street Journal the company objected because it was unsure how tokenization would affect its stock price, liquidity and volatility, The Block reported, adding that OKXICE told the Journal it still plans to launch trading for dozens of companies, including Nvidia, Apple, Microsoft and Tesla.
The venue is not live yet and the notice gives no launch date; it describes permissioned Uniswap v4 pools on OKX’s X Layer network in which each tokenized stock trades against the USDC, USDG or USDT stablecoins.
Updates
- Update, : Oct. 18: CoinDesk added a TD Securities issuer survey finding “little interest” in tokenization outside crypto-adjacent companies. CoinDesk described eight of the nine objections as newly disclosed in the Oct. 15 notice (with only Cerebras earlier), while The Defiant had said four objected earlier.
- Update, : Oct. 19: Cointelegraph reported the same nine objections and said OKX had not responded to a request for comment.
- Update, : Oct. 19: Decrypt said Nasdaq, which is not among the nine, plans to opt its own shares out of the SEC framework, citing real-time pricing and trade-reporting concerns.
- Update, : Oct. 20: OKXICE’s updated notice dated Oct. 19 adds seven objectors, including Microsoft, Alphabet and Goldman Sachs, bringing the disclosed total to 16, CoinDesk reported.
- Update, : Oct. 20: OKXICE co-chair Andrew Cuomo called the 16 objections “a very natural response,” saying companies were expected to “wait and see” and that the SEC framework caps the number of stocks and trading volume, so “it really is a sandbox,” CoinDesk reported. He told Cointelegraph “there will be more.” Cointelegraph said about 25% of the 62 companies OKXICE proposed have objected.
- Update, : Oct. 20: Decrypt reported the updated notice also changes wording: the Oct. 15 version said the venue would offer stocks tokenized by unaffiliated third parties, while Monday’s version says stocks may be tokenized by an outside party or by the issuer itself. Neither notice explains whether an objection keeps a stock off the platform, Decrypt said.
- Update, : Oct. 23: Citing a Reuters report, Cointelegraph said six more companies, including Wells Fargo, Arm Holdings and Intuit, have objected, bringing the total to 22; it said 16 of them are listed on Nasdaq and six on the NYSE. Wells Fargo and Arm declined to comment, and Intuit did not immediately respond.
- Update, : Oct. 24: CoinDesk said the six newest objectors, named in an updated OKXICE notice filed Friday, are Cisco, Wells Fargo, Marvell Technology, Arm Holdings, Intuit and Moderna. It noted that Wells Fargo and Arm were not on the venue’s original 62-company roster while the other four were, so not all 22 objections are departures from that list, and that an objection blocks trading only on the notifying venue.
- Update, : Oct. 25: Decrypt said the Oct. 23 OKXICE notice that names the six newest objectors also spells out the venue's risks: beyond pausing when the underlying stock is halted it uses no circuit breakers, it has no policies on maximal extractable value (profit from reordering transactions), administrators can upgrade the smart contracts without advance notice, and the contract controlling who can trade has been audited only internally. Decrypt added that none of the objectors appear to have tokenized their own shares, a path the venue has allowed since its Oct. 19 notice.
- Update, : Update (Oct. 27): An OKXICE notice dated Oct. 26 adds IBM, Oracle, Intel and IonQ, bringing the total to 26, CoinDesk and Decrypt reported. CoinDesk said all four were on the original 62-company roster, so 23 of those 62 (about 37%) have now objected.
- Update, : Update (Oct. 27): Decrypt said the latest notice warns it is uncertain whether tokenized shares in a self-custodied wallet would count as customer property or be covered by SIPC if the tokenizer's broker-dealer failed, and that trades must be fully funded with no margin.
- Update, : Update (Oct. 28): An OKXICE notice dated Oct. 27 adds seven more objectors, including JPMorgan Chase, Coca-Cola, Dell Technologies, Applied Materials, Adobe and Sandisk, bringing disclosed objections to 33, CoinDesk reported. By CoinDesk's tally, 30 of the 62 companies originally proposed for trading (about 48%) have now opted out. Decrypt also reported the seven new objections and the total of 33.
- Update, : Update (Oct. 29): Walmart, Eli Lilly, Cigna Group, Carnival and Arcos Dorados objected to trading of their shares on OKXICE TSV, according to the venue's Oct. 28 notice as reported by Decrypt and CoinDesk, bringing the total to 38 companies, up from 33 a day earlier. Decrypt noted that heavily traded names including Nvidia, Tesla, Apple and Amazon had not objected, and CoinDesk reported that a rival tokenized stock venue on Canton is preparing to launch with an issuer-sponsored stock under the SEC's innovation exemption.
- Update, : Update (Nov. 2): Nvidia, Costco and Nike have joined the objectors, and nearly 70% of the companies initially picked for trading have now opted out, CoinDesk reported. It said 19 firms, including Apple, Tesla and Amazon, have no disclosed objection as the 30-day response window nears its end.
- Update, : Update (Nov. 2, afternoon): Decrypt and Bitcoin Magazine both put the total number of objecting companies at 50 after Nvidia, Costco, Nike and nine others objected, up from 38 last week.
- Update, : Update (Nov. 3, midday): Amazon, Tesla, SpaceX, Netflix, SoFi Technologies and Lam Research appear in OKXICE TSV's updated notice dated Nov. 2, bringing disclosed objections to 56, CoinDesk and Decrypt reported. CoinDesk counted 49 of the 62 companies OKXICE initially picked as having objected, leaving 13 without a disclosed objection, including Apple, Strategy, Robinhood, Coinbase and Circle. For issuers notified on Oct. 4, the 30-day objection window would end Tuesday, Nov. 3, though CoinDesk noted the clock runs from each company's own notice and venues have up to five business days to publish objections. Decrypt noted the venue can still list shares that issuers tokenize themselves.
- Update, : Update (Nov. 7): OKXICE TSV’s notice dated Nov. 5 brings disclosed objections to 67, with Apple and Meta among the latest, so all seven ‘Magnificent Seven’ tech companies have now opted out, CoinDesk and Decrypt reported. Decrypt listed 11 additions in that notice (Apple, Meta, Home Depot, Boeing, GE Vernova, Palantir, ServiceNow, S&P Global, KLA, Super Micro Computer and Nebius), while CoinDesk said Apple, Home Depot, GE Vernova, Nebius, Boeing and ServiceNow had appeared earlier in the week. CoinDesk counted 56 of the 62 originally picked companies (about 90%) as having objected, and said Strategy, Coinbase, Circle and Robinhood, plus Securitize and BitGo, which told CoinDesk they would not object, have no disclosed objection. Decrypt noted it is unclear whether OKXICE notified absent companies such as Berkshire Hathaway, Visa and Exxon Mobil.
Key facts
- OKXICE LLC, the Texas company that operates the venue, is 50% owned by Intercontinental Exchange Holdings and 50% by OKC USA Holding, according to the notice.
- Only wallets holding a non-transferable “soulbound” token issued by OKXICE TSV may trade in or provide liquidity to its pools, and OKX Inc. performs identity, anti-money-laundering and sanctions checks on the venue’s behalf, the notice says.
- The notice says a third-party tokenizer, acting through an SEC-registered, FINRA-member broker-dealer, holds the underlying shares one-for-one against tokens outstanding, and that holders must receive the same rights as ordinary shareholders, including dividends and voting rights.
- OKXICE TSV says it is not registered with the SEC in any capacity for these activities, is not subject to Regulation NMS, and that the SEC has not passed on the accuracy of its notice.
- Nasdaq said in an FAQ on its website that it would opt out of having its own shares tokenized under the SEC’s framework; a spokesperson told the Journal it does not want its shares on a venue that does not display best prices in real time or report to the consolidated tape, The Block reported.
- OKXICE co-chair Andrew Cuomo, the former New York governor, told the Journal he expects companies to be skeptical of tokenizing their stock and described the venue as a first step toward tokenizing securities, according to The Block.
- Stocks tokenized by Securitize, which launched tokenized U.S. stocks on Oct. 8, are expected to trade on OKXICE, the Journal reported, per The Block.
- The value of tokenized stocks reached about $3.5 billion as of Oct. 15, up from about $680 million at the start of the year, according to The Block’s data.
- The Defiant said OKXICE notices must be updated within five business days of each objection.
- An objection applies only to the venue that sent the notice, so each new venue starts its own 30-day clock, and companies are not required to approve listings affirmatively, according to The Block.
- CoinDesk said eight newly disclosed objections appeared in OKXICE’s Oct. 15 notice, with Cerebras Systems having formally opted out earlier, and that the update did not say why the companies objected or when they filed; The Defiant had reported that Cerebras, AppLovin, Applied Digital and Rocket Lab objected earlier.
- TD Securities analysts led by Reid Noch wrote in a report shared with CoinDesk that conversations with dozens of issuers showed “little interest in tokenizing their shares outside a small group of crypto-adjacent companies,” and that several issuers raised significant concerns after discovering the framework.
- CoinDesk said TD Securities named the framework’s reliance on temporary exemptive relief rather than permanent rules as its largest hurdle, since a future commission could reverse it, discouraging institutions from investing in or integrating with the venues.
- CoinDesk dated OKXICE’s announcement that it had notified the SEC — initially targeting 63 U.S.-listed companies — to Oct. 5, while The Block said the 63 tickers were named on Oct. 4.
- Cointelegraph said it asked OKX for comment on the objections but had not received a response by publication.
- Decrypt, citing The Wall Street Journal, said Nasdaq will opt its own shares out of the SEC’s innovation exemption because it does not want them on a venue that does not show the best prices in real time or report to the consolidated tape.
- CoinDesk said the seven new objectors in OKXICE’s Oct. 19 notice are Microsoft, Alphabet, Goldman Sachs, Qualcomm, Caterpillar, McDonald’s and Western Digital, and that the notice does not give reasons or say when they objected.
- CoinDesk said 15 of the 62 companies on OKXICE’s original 63-ticker list have now objected, leaving 47 without a disclosed objection; Cerebras, the 16th objector, was not on the original list.
- Cuomo told Cointelegraph the notices were “not objections” in his view, describing companies as standing at the side of a pool while others test the water.
- CoinDesk said Securitize, which earlier this month announced 12 tokenized U.S. stocks including Microsoft and Alphabet for trading on OKXICE’s venue, said issuers’ questions about pricing, investor protections and shareholder rights are reasonable; CoinDesk noted the objections to OKXICE do not by themselves show opposition to Securitize’s separate offering.
- Vertalo CEO Dave Hendrick told CoinDesk the 30-day objection window is working as the SEC intended and that “an objection today… may be an acceptance later” once systems linking exchanges and tokenized venues exist.
- As of Friday, Oct. 23, 22 companies had objected to tokenized versions of their shares on OKXICE, including Wells Fargo, Arm Holdings and Intuit, Cointelegraph reported, citing Reuters.
- Cisco, Moderna, Intuit and Marvell were on OKXICE’s original proposed roster of 62 companies; Wells Fargo, Arm and Cerebras were not, CoinDesk reported.
- The Oct. 23 OKXICE notice warns that broker-dealers trading on the venue face unsettled questions about trade reporting and best execution, which could limit their participation and thin out liquidity.
- Decrypt said the exemption caps the venue at 75 of the largest, most liquid stocks, with trading limited to 0.25% of each stock's average daily volume, plus up to 250 other stocks at 2.5%.
- Nvidia, Costco, Nike and nine other companies objected to trading of their shares on the planned OKX-ICE tokenized stock venue, bringing the total to 50.
- Fifty companies, including Nvidia, Microsoft and JPMorgan, have blocked OKX and ICE from tokenizing their shares under the SEC's innovation exemption.