OKXICE, a joint venture between OKX and Intercontinental Exchange, has notified the SEC of its intent to launch a 24/7 trading venue for tokenized U.S. stocks. The platform will operate under the SEC's Innovation Exemption, which allows qualifying venues to trade tokenized assets without formal exchange registration since September 17.
The venue plans to support tokenized shares of companies including Nvidia, Tesla, Apple, Microsoft, and SpaceX, as well as crypto-linked firms like Coinbase and Circle. Each asset will trade in pairs against USDC, USDG, or USDT. The underlying shares are held one-for-one by an unnamed third-party broker-dealer, with token holders retaining voting and dividend rights.
Trading will be conducted via permissioned Uniswap v4 liquidity pools on the XLayer layer-2 blockchain. Access is restricted to wallets holding a non-transferable soulbound token, issued only after users complete identity, anti-money laundering, and sanctions verification through OKX's U.S. entity.
The filing notes that chipmaker Cerebras Systems has already submitted an objection to the venture. Under the exemption rules, issuers have 30 days to object to the tokenization of their shares, which prevents the venue from listing them. The notice also warns that tokenized prices may diverge from underlying market prices outside standard trading hours.
The 50-50 joint venture was established in June, following ICE's acquisition of a minority stake in OKX at a $25 billion valuation. Andrew Cuomo, who has worked with OKX since 2023, serves as co-chair of the venture. The SEC exemption is described by officials as a temporary bridge toward permanent rulemaking.
