54 Companies Object to OKXICE Plan for Stock Tokenization
OKXICE—a joint venture between cryptocurrency firm OKX and the New York Stock Exchange—plans to trade stocks 24/7
By Thursday, 54 of the 62 companies from the initial list had objected to trading their stocks on the platform. Boeing and ServiceNow joined the list on Wednesday, a day after Apple, Home Depot, and GE Vernova. Earlier, Microsoft, Alphabet, Nvidia, JPMorgan Chase, and Walmart had opposed the listing.
OKXICE is a joint venture between cryptocurrency company OKX and the parent company of the New York Stock Exchange. Its co-chair is former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo. Last month, the project announced plans to launch 24/7 trading of tokenized stocks of 62 public companies.
Objections were also filed by companies not included in the original list: Wells Fargo, Nebius Group, Arm Holdings, Cerebras Systems, and Cigna Group. Eight companies from the initial selection have not publicly disclosed any objections. These are primarily participants in the cryptocurrency and blockchain sectors—Circle Internet Group, Coinbase, Robinhood, BitGo, Strategy, and Securitize. The list also includes Palantir and Super Micro Computer.
In September, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission approved a temporary exemption for eligible platforms. It allows trading tokenized stocks without registration as a national securities exchange. Company consent is not required: the platform only needs to notify the company, after which it has 30 days to object and block the listing.
OKXICE has not stated whether the objections will affect the planned launch. Applied Optoelectronics previously stated that the impact of the new scheme on the price, liquidity, and volatility of its stocks remains unclear. A company representative said: "At this stage, we do not see an obvious benefit for AOI or our shareholders that would justify these uncertainties."
