Apple, Meta and Palantir Object to OKX-ICE Tokenized Stock Plan as Issuer Resistance Reaches 56 Companies
Key Takeaways
- •Apple, Meta and Palantir have objected to OKX-ICE's tokenized share plan, raising total objections to 56 of the 62 initially selected companies, or about 90% of the proposed stock lineup.
- •Only six companies — Strategy, Coinbase, Circle, Robinhood, Securitize and BitGo — have no disclosed objections, and all are crypto-linked businesses whose absence of objection does not signal endorsement.
- •OKX-ICE plans 24-hour trading of tokenized U.S. stocks with stablecoin settlement on XLayer, OKX's layer-2 blockchain, using automated market makers under the SEC's five-year Innovation Exemption.
- •Issuers have 30 calendar days after notification to block tokenization of their shares, and concerns over third-party product endorsements underpin the opposition.
- •The launch roster is not yet final, and the wave of objections may leave crypto-linked companies among the platform's initial participants rather than traditional equities.
Apple, Meta and Palantir are the latest companies to object to OKX-ICE's plan to offer tokenized versions of their shares, bringing the total number of objections to 56 of the 62 companies initially selected by the platform — roughly 90% of its proposed stock lineup.
The development leaves Strategy, Coinbase, Circle, Robinhood, Securitize and BitGo as the only six companies from the initial selection without a disclosed objection. Their absence from the list, however, does not necessarily mean they have endorsed the proposed trading venue.
The remaining six are themselves crypto-linked businesses: Strategy is the largest corporate holder of bitcoin, Coinbase operates the largest U.S. cryptocurrency exchange, Circle issues the USDC stablecoin, and Robinhood, Securitize and BitGo provide retail brokerage, tokenization infrastructure and digital-asset custody services, respectively.
The latest additions follow earlier objections from Nvidia, Amazon, Tesla, SpaceX, JPMorgan Chase, Microsoft, Alphabet, Goldman Sachs, Coca-Cola, Broadcom, Verizon, Qualcomm and several other companies. BitcoinKE (BitKE) previously reported that JPMorgan, Coca-Cola, Adobe, AMD and Dell had joined the pushback and that Microsoft, Alphabet, Qualcomm and Goldman Sachs had also lodged objections.
The outlet has been tracking the growing resistance, most recently reporting SpaceX's objection to the proposed trading arrangement.
OKX-ICE intends to offer 24-hour trading of tokenized U.S. stocks — blockchain-based versions of shares that can change hands around the clock rather than only during fixed exchange sessions — with transactions settled in stablecoins on XLayer, a layer-2 blockchain developed by OKX, one of the world's largest cryptocurrency exchanges. The platform would use automated market makers, algorithmic systems that price trades against pooled liquidity rather than matching individual buy and sell orders, and operate under the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's five-year Innovation Exemption.
Under framework, companies have 30 calendar days after receiving notification to object to their shares being traded through an unaffiliated third-party venue, a mechanism that allows issuers to block the proposed tokenization. In earlier coverage, BitKE reported that concerns over third-party product endorsements underpin the opposition.
The mounting objections raise questions about the range of traditional equities that will be available when the platform launches, potentially leaving crypto-linked companies among its initial participants. With issuers entitled to a 30-calendar-day objection window after notification, the roster is not yet final: whether any of the six remaining companies lodge objections will help determine how much of the original selection remains available at launch.
