Intel, Oracle, IBM and IonQ have joined the growing list of companies objecting to the trading of their shares on OKXICE TSV, according to an updated public notice from the venue dated Oct. 26.

The notice lifts the total number of objecting issuers to 26, up from nine on Oct. 15 — a near-tripling in less than two weeks. As with previous notices, it does not explain the companies' reasons or what effect an objection may have on whether a stock can trade on the platform. With the venue still in its planning phase, the fast-growing list has become the most visible sign yet of issuer resistance to tokenized trading of their shares.

OKXICE TSV is a planned venue for trading tokenized U.S. stocks, structured as a 50-50 joint venture between Intercontinental Exchange, the owner of the New York Stock Exchange, and OKX's U.S. holding company.

Steadily growing list

The count of objecting companies has climbed steadily through October. The tally stood at nine on Oct. 15, when the first batch included Verizon, Broadcom and UnitedHealth Group. It reached 16 by Oct. 19 and 22 in the Oct. 23 notice, which added Wells Fargo, Cisco and Marvell.

Technology companies dominate the roster: Microsoft, Alphabet, Broadcom, Qualcomm, Arm, Cisco, and now Intel and Oracle have all objected, alongside banks Goldman Sachs and Wells Fargo. The addition of IBM and IonQ brings two quantum computing players into the group. The breadth of the roster — chipmakers, software companies, Wall Street banks and quantum computing firms — means the objections now cut across the very sectors and shares the venue is being built to trade.

The updated roster is set out in the venue's public notice (PDF).

How the venue works

OKXICE TSV plans to let approved users trade tokenized U.S. stocks around the clock, 24/7, through permissioned Uniswap v4 liquidity pools on OKX's XLayer blockchain, paired with stablecoins such as USDC. Users must pass identity and sanctions checks and hold a nontransferable “soulbound” token to trade. Because the tokens would trade around the clock, activity could continue at hours when the exchanges where the underlying shares are listed are closed — one of the venue's clearest departures from conventional stock trading.

The venue is set to operate under the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's innovation exemption, which the agency unveiled in September after the Clarity Act stalled in the Senate.

Investor risk disclosures

The latest notice also highlights a key risk for investors. Each token represents a claim on a real share held by a third-party “tokenizer” through a registered broker-dealer. If that broker-dealer were to fail, the notice says, it is uncertain whether tokenized shares held in self-custodied wallets would count as customer property or be covered by the Securities Investor Protection Corporation, which protects brokerage customers when firms fail.

The notice additionally states that trades must be fully funded, with no margin or borrowing permitted. Liquidity providers are not required to be registered market makers and can withdraw their liquidity at any time.

OKX and ICE first teamed up on tokenized securities earlier this year before unveiling plans for the venue this month. The venue has issued updates to its objection roster roughly every three to four days since mid-October; whether further issuers are added, and how the platform addresses the objections, are among the open questions as the project moves from announcement toward operation.

Source: Decrypt