OKX-ICE Venture targets 63 stocks for tokenization

OKX's joint venture with the parent company of the New York Stock Exchange takes a critical step in regulating tokenized U.S. stocks

OKX (OKB)'s joint venture with the parent company of the New York Stock Exchange Intercontinental Exchange Group (ICE) has made its first formal regulatory progress in launching tokenized U.S. stocks. OKXICE LLC, jointly formed by cryptocurrency trading platform OKX and Intercontinental Exchange (ICE), has filed a notice with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) that it plans to operate a trading venue under the agency's newly established "innovation exemption" framework.

A public announcement issued on October 4 listed 63 stock codes to be traded at the venue, including well-known companies such as Nvidia, Apple, Microsoft and Tesla, as well as crypto-related companies such as Strategy, Coinbase, Circle and BitGo. The same announcement disclosed that chip maker Cerebras Systems has filed a notice of objection opposing the tokenization of its shares.

A "milestone step" towards round-the-clock trading

Andrew Cuomo, co-chairman of OKXICE, said the platform will cover more than 60 companies currently listed on the American Stock Exchange. The former New York governor called the declaration an important milestone in establishing a global round-the-clock U.S. stock trading system, and noted that it will help ensure that the future of digital finance is rooted in the United States.

Under the proposed trading venue rules, tokenized shares will enjoy the same rights as the underlying shares, including dividend rights and voting rights. Once the announcement is made, the company selected for tokenization will have to raise objections within 30 days. As of the announcement date, Cerebras was the only company to object.

The SEC introduced a temporary innovation exemption mechanism on September 17, providing a path for eligible trading venues to trade tokenized national market system stocks on a licensed basis. These tokenized securities platforms use automated market makers and liquidity pools rather than traditional broker structures. OKXICE's own architecture is based on the permission-based Uniswap v4 liquidity pool built by XLayer, with each tokenized stock paired with one of three stablecoins: USD Coin (USDC), Global Dollar (USDG), or Tether (USDT).

Regulators have set aside a five-year transition period in the exemption mechanism to decide whether to convert it to a permanent system. OKX and ICE established the 50 - 50 joint venture in June this year to build the underlying infrastructure for tokenized financial products. The partnership follows ICE's investment in OKX in March this year, which valued OKX at approximately US$25 billion and gave ICE a seat on the OKX board of directors.

OKXICE still needs to complete regulatory approval

Submission of a notice does not mean that the transaction can begin immediately. Before the platform can officially operate commercially, OKXICE still needs to go through additional regulatory approval steps, including registering as a broker-dealer and futures commission trader.

Currently, OKX lists more than 70 tokenized stock symbols outside the United States, operates under offshore rules and does not extend ownership rights to U.S. investors. The U.S. regulatory platform under the innovation exemption framework will be the first time that OKX has launched an on-chain security-based token product with full shareholder rights in the world's largest equity market.

Other exchanges are moving in a similar direction. The New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), Nasdaq (Nasdaq) and London Stock Exchange (LSE) are all preparing their own 24-hour trading systems. This marks that OKXICE will become one of many contenders competing for early share of the tokenized equity market under the SEC's new framework.