Fifty public companies have now objected to having their shares tokenized on OKXICE, the joint venture between crypto exchange OKX and Intercontinental Exchange (ICE), parent of the New York Stock Exchange, as the venue's first 30-day objection window closed on Tuesday.

A notice published by OKXICE on Oct. 30 added 12 new objectors, including Nvidia, Costco, Nike, Micron and Reddit. They join earlier objectors such as Microsoft, Alphabet, JPMorgan Chase, Goldman Sachs, Walmart, Broadcom, Verizon and Intel. Of the 62 companies the venue initially proposed to tokenize, 43 — roughly 69% — have objected, according to a CoinDesk tally. That response rate makes issuer objections — not silence — the dominant outcome of the venue's first window.

The list has grown quickly: nine companies had objected as of Oct. 15, rising to 16 by Oct. 19, 38 by Oct. 28 and 50 two days later.

How the opt-out works

The objections stem from the SEC's five-year "Innovation Exemption", issued Sept. 17, which allows tokenized securities venues (TSVs) to trade blockchain versions of U.S. stocks through automated market makers without registering as exchanges. When an unaffiliated third party tokenizes a company's stock, the venue must notify the issuer, which then has 30 days to object in writing. Silence counts as consent, and the order provides no way to object once the window closes. In practice, that makes tokenization the default: a company must affirmatively act within its 30 days to keep its shares off the venue.

OKXICE plans 24/7 trading of tokens backed one-for-one by shares, paired against stablecoins such as USDC in permissioned pools on OKX's X Layer blockchain.

The objecting companies have not given reasons. JPMorgan said it remains encouraged by tokenization but wants to be thoughtful about how its shares are represented and traded.

"Given how easy the opt-out is, the list of objectors is likely to keep growing," said Olivia Vande Woude, head of tokenization at Ava Labs.

For the remaining names on OKXICE's initial list, the closed first window means the consent-by-silence rule now applies: companies that did not file written objections are treated as having consented, leaving tokens for those issuers eligible under the venue's 24/7 plan.

Nasdaq's role

The dispute has also taken on a competitive edge. An executive at a Nasdaq-listed company told Crypto in America that a Nasdaq representative urged the company to object and offered a call to explain why. Nasdaq declined to comment on the claim but reiterated that TSVs are not the best path to tokenization.

Nasdaq argues that venues operating outside the National Market System could fragment liquidity and lack real-time best-price display and consolidated-tape reporting. The exchange operator is building its own issuer-centric Nasdaq Equity Token with Kraken, targeted for the second quarter of 2027. The result is two competing models moving toward market in parallel: an opt-out venue where silence counts as consent, and an issuer-centric token on a 2027 timeline.

A full-page Wall Street Journal advertisement urging chief executives to opt out ran under the headline "YOUR STOCK. THEIR TOKENS. YOUR PROBLEM." and directed readers to Nasdaq's FAQ through a QR code. It was paid for by Common Sense Leadership Fund, a conservative-leaning nonprofit. Nasdaq said it had no connection to the ad and never funded the group.

OKXICE co-chair Andrew Cuomo, the former New York governor, has called the objections a "natural response."

"We are at the very beginning of the rollout of fundamentally different market structure," he said last week.

For context, a tokenized stock is a blockchain token backed one-for-one by a real share, which a third party holds. OKXICE lets it trade around the clock against stablecoins such as USDC. Under the SEC's Innovation Exemption, the venue can list these tokens without the issuing company's consent unless the company objects within 30 days.

This article is a standardized rewrite of "Nvidia, Nike Join 50 Companies Blocking OKX–ICE Stock Token Push", which first appeared on Bitcoin Magazine and was written by Micah Zimmerman.