Six More Companies Opt Out of OKX and ICE Tokenized Stock Trading Plan, Bringing Objections to 22

Cisco, Wells Fargo, Arm Holdings, Moderna, Intuit and Marvell Technology have refused to let their shares be traded on the planned tokenized venue run by OKX and Intercontinental Exchange, the parent of the New York Stock Exchange. The six were named in an updated public notice filed Friday by OKXICE, the joint venture. That lifts the total number of objections to 22, a list that already included Microsoft, Alphabet, Goldman Sachs and McDonald’s. The pile of refusals is a real hurdle for a market structure meant to let US investors trade stocks around the clock on blockchains.

How the SEC Innovation Exemption for Tokenized Securities Works

The SEC’s five year Innovation Exemption lets qualifying tokenized securities venues test trading through automated market makers, which use pools of assets to execute trades, while giving issuers a say. OKXICE issued its first notice on October 4, planning to use Uniswap liquidity pools on OKX’s XLayer network, with settlement in stablecoins. Venues must notify companies and allow 30 days for objections before offering tokenized shares. The original roster had 62 companies. Cisco, Moderna, Intuit and Marvell were on it, but Wells Fargo and Arm were not, and neither was Cerebras Systems, so the 22 objections are not all departures from the first list. An objection only blocks trading on that venue and does not mean opposition to every form of stock tokenization.

Cuomo Calls the Pushback Expected

OKXICE co-chairman and former New York governor Andrew Cuomo says he saw this coming, since such a dramatic change leads many companies to wait and watch rather than go first. He described the framework as a sandbox and a model demonstration, with limits on participating companies and trading volumes.