The corporate backlash against tokenized stocks is snowballing, with seven more companies—including Microsoft, Google parent Alphabet, Goldman Sachs, Qualcomm, Caterpillar, McDonald's and Western Digital—objecting to having their shares traded on OKXICE TSV, a planned tokenized stock venue from crypto exchange OKX and NYSE owner Intercontinental Exchange, according to an updated public notice published Monday, Oct. 19. The new objectors span technology, finance, chipmaking, heavy equipment, fast food and data storage.

Tokenized stocks are blockchain-based representations of shares in publicly listed companies.

That brings the total number of objecting issuers to 16, up from nine in the venue's previous notice, published Oct. 15, just four days earlier. The earlier group included Verizon, Broadcom, UnitedHealth Group, CoreWeave and Rocket Lab. Neither notice explains the companies' reasons for objecting, and it remains unclear whether an objection would actually keep a stock off the platform—making how the venue treats objecting issuers one of the details to watch as launch approaches.

Goldman Sachs' inclusion stands out, given the bank's own investments in blockchain-based market infrastructure.

The updated notice also contains a quiet but notable change. The Oct. 15 version said the venue would offer stocks tokenized by third parties unaffiliated with the underlying companies. Monday's version says it will offer stocks tokenized by either an outside party or the issuer itself, potentially giving companies a more direct role in how their shares appear onchain.

Under the third-party model, an outside "tokenizer" buys and holds real shares one-for-one through a registered broker-dealer, then issues tokens meant to carry the same dividend and voting rights as the underlying shares, according to the notice.

The venue plans to run 24/7, with liquidity provided through Uniswap v4 pools on OKX's XLayer blockchain and trades settled in stablecoins such as Circle's USDC and Tether's USDT. Traditional U.S. stock exchanges trade only during set weekday sessions, so a 24/7 venue would keep shares moving around the clock.

OKXICE is set to operate under the SEC's innovation exemption, a framework the agency unveiled in September after the Clarity Act, a crypto market-structure bill, stalled in the Senate. The exemption lets venues trade tokenized U.S. stocks without registering as exchanges, and the notice acknowledges that OKXICE won't be subject to Regulation NMS—the SEC rulebook that underpins best-price execution and the consolidated tape of U.S. equity trades—or fair-access rules.

OKX and ICE first joined forces on tokenized securities earlier this year before unveiling the 24/7 venue this month. Nasdaq, which won SEC approval for its own tokenized securities pilot, has said it will opt its shares out of the exemption. A Nasdaq spokesperson previously told The Wall Street Journal that it doesn't want its stock trading on a venue that doesn't show the best prices in real time or report trades to the consolidated tape—the same market-data functions Regulation NMS governs.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) recently warned that tokenized stock markets remain volatile and illiquid despite real demand.