Apple, Meta, and Palantir have joined the growing list of companies objecting to plans by cryptocurrency exchange OKX and Intercontinental Exchange (ICE) to offer tokenized versions of their shares. The latest objections bring the total number of disclosed objections to 67, covering approximately 90% of the companies initially selected for the proposed platform.
The objections now involve 56 of the 62 companies whose shares were initially identified for tokenized trading through the OKX-ICE arrangement. Only six companies from the original selection have no disclosed objections: Strategy, Coinbase, Circle, Robinhood, Securitize, and BitGo. However, the absence of an objection does not necessarily mean these companies have approved or endorsed the proposed trading platform. The latest additions follow earlier objections from major corporations, including Nvidia, Amazon, Tesla, SpaceX, Microsoft, Alphabet, JPMorgan Chase, Goldman Sachs, Coca-Cola, Broadcom, Verizon, and Qualcomm.
Under the proposed arrangement, OKX and ICE intend to offer round-the-clock trading of tokenized US stocks, with transactions settled in stablecoins on OKX's XLayer blockchain. The platform is also expected to use automated market makers to facilitate trading.
The proposal is based on a five-year Innovation Exemption framework involving the US Securities and Exchange Commission. Under the framework described in the report, companies have 30 calendar days after receiving notification to object to their shares being traded through an unaffiliated third-party venue.
The growing opposition presents a major challenge to the proposed tokenized stock platform, particularly its ability to offer shares from established publicly traded companies. If the objections continue, OKX-ICE may have a more limited selection of equities at launch, potentially concentrating its initial offerings around companies connected to the cryptocurrency industry.
