Nvidia and CoreWeave Among 67 Issuers Blocking OKX-ICE Tokenized Stock Venue

The count comes from the venue's notice dated November 5, CoinCentral reported. With that notice, Apple, Microsoft, Alphabet, Amazon, Nvidia, Tesla and Meta have all opted out. These are the stocks that would have given a round-the-clock tokenized market most of its appeal. CoinDesk's tally put the share of the 62 companies OKXICE originally selected that have objected at about 90 percent, or 56 companies. The other 11 objectors were not on the venue's first list.

For executives and investors following the effort to move listed equities onto blockchains, the result is clear. Under the rules US regulators wrote for this market, companies can keep unaffiliated venues from trading tokens of their stock, and most large companies are choosing to do so.

The AI and infrastructure names objected early. CoreWeave was among the first nine objectors in a notice dated October 15, alongside Broadcom, Verizon, UnitedHealth, AppLovin, Applied Digital, Rocket Lab, Applied Optoelectronics and chipmaker Cerebras Systems, according to CoinDesk. Microsoft, Alphabet, Qualcomm, Western Digital and Goldman Sachs followed on October 19. Later notices added Nvidia, Palantir, KLA, Super Micro Computer, Nebius, ServiceNow and GE Vernova, along with consumer names such as Walmart, Costco, Netflix and Nike.

The list grew quickly in recent weeks. According to CoinCentral, the count was 38 on October 28, 50 by October 30, 56 on November 2, 59 the following day and 67 on November 5. Venues have up to five business days to publish objections, so the public list may trail decisions companies have already made.

The Opt-Out Rule

The SEC granted a five-year innovation exemption on September 17 that lets qualifying venues trade blockchain versions of listed US stocks without registering as an exchange. When an unaffiliated third party creates the tokens, the issuer gets 30 days to object in writing. Silence counts as consent, and a stock whose issuer objects cannot be traded on the venue under the exemption. Companies can still tokenize their own shares through other routes.

OKXICE announced its plans on October 5. It wants to offer continuous trading of tokens backed one-for-one by shares, settled in stablecoins including USDC, USDG and USDT through permissioned liquidity pools on OKX's X Layer network. The venture has said that neither it nor its affiliates will supply liquidity. Its first notice named 63 tickers covering 62 companies, with Alphabet counted twice for its two share classes.

Most objectors have not given reasons, and the notices do not say when each objection was filed. Applied Optoelectronics said it could not judge how tokens might affect its share price, trading volume or volatility, and that investors might wrongly assume it sponsored the tokens, according to CoinCentral. Nasdaq said it would keep its shares off venues that do not show real-time best prices or report trades to the consolidated tape.

Crypto-linked companies are among those with no disclosed objection. Strategy, Coinbase, Circle and Robinhood are among them, and Securitize and BitGo told CoinDesk they did not plan to object.

OKXICE has not given a launch date. With nearly all of its original large-cap targets gone, the open question is which stocks it will be able to list when trading starts, and whether any of the objectors change their minds before then. A rival venue, TSV, went live this week with an issuer-sponsored model that avoids the objection process.