Nine major companies have formally objected to the listing of their shares on OKXICE, a tokenized stock trading platform operated by OKX and ICE. The list of companies includes Verizon, Broadcom, UnitedHealth, Cerebras, AppLovin, Applied Digital, Rocket Lab, CoreWeave, and Applied Optoelectronics. These firms represent 14% of the 63 companies originally slated for the platform.
The OKXICE venue facilitates 24/7 trading via Uniswap v4 pools on the XLayer chain, with settlements in USDC and USDT. The platform relies on a third-party tokenizer to hold underlying shares at a registered broker-dealer. This model emerged following the SEC's introduction of an Innovation Exemption in September, which allows platforms to trade tokenized stocks without full exchange registration.
The platform faces significant operational scrutiny, as it is not subject to Regulation NMS, which mandates best-price execution for investors. Furthermore, the venue lacks requirements for fair access, imposes volume caps, and allows administrators to update smart contracts without prior notice. Nasdaq has also opted its own shares out of such platforms, citing a lack of real-time price reporting.
This development impacts several entities, including Robinhood, Kraken, and Backed Finance, which rely on a steady supply of tokenizable equities for their products. The objection from issuers creates a new hurdle for the sector, as tokenized shares require the underlying asset to be backed by real stock. CFOs are now evaluating the risks of thinner, volatile markets that operate outside traditional execution duties.
