OKX’s Tokenized Stocks Hit a Wall: Broadcom,…

Nine US-listed companies have formally told OKXICE — the joint venture between crypto exchange OKX and NYSE-owner Intercontinental Exchange — that they do not want their shares tokenized on its planned platform, according to a public notice dated October 15.

The objectors are AppLovin, Applied Digital, Applied Optoelectronics, Broadcom, Cerebras Systems, CoreWeave, Rocket Lab, UnitedHealth Group and Verizon Communications. Eight of them were among the 63 equities OKXICE identified in its October 4 filing; Cerebras was not on that original list but is recorded as objecting in the updated notice. The filing does not give reasons for any of the refusals, so it would be premature to assume the nine share a single concern.

How the exemption works

The SEC's Innovation Exemption, introduced September 17, allows qualifying Tokenized Securities Venues to trade tokenized US-listed stocks through permissioned automated market-maker pools without registering as national securities exchanges. It runs for a temporary five-year term and requires equivalent shareholder rights, including dividends and voting. A venue must notify issuers in writing first; issuers then have 30 calendar days to object, and a valid objection bars that stock from trading on that specific venue. Silence is not an endorsement, and a refusal does not prevent the company from pursuing its own tokenization arrangements or another venue from making a separate request.

OKXICE intends to run Uniswap v4 AMM pools on OKX's X Layer blockchain, pairing tokenized shares against stablecoins including USDC, USDT and USDG. Prices would be set by the assets available in those pools rather than tracking the underlying equity market directly — the smart contracts would not use price oracles to set execution prices — leaving room for divergence from exchange quotations, particularly in thin liquidity or outside US market hours.

Those mechanics are behind some of the pushback. Applied Optoelectronics told The Wall Street Journal it was unsure how tokenization might affect its share price, liquidity and volatility, and worried investors could mistakenly assume the company endorsed the product. Latham & Watkins partners Stephen Wink and Dan Gibbons, cited by The Information, warned that thin token trading could distort price signals in the broader equity market. Nasdaq has separately said it will opt out of third-party tokenization of its own shares.

OKXICE still aims to list dozens of large caps, including Apple, Nvidia, Microsoft, Amazon, Alphabet, Tesla, JPMorgan Chase and Walmart, none of which appeared on the objection list — though absence does not signal approval, since each window depends on when the issuer was notified. The tokens would be backed one-for-one by shares held through a registered broker-dealer, preserving voting and dividend rights. No launch date has been announced.

The setback comes seven months after ICE took a stake in OKX at a $25 billion valuation in March, gaining a board seat and a partnership covering regulated markets, crypto infrastructure and tokenized products.