OKX has formally filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission through its OKXICE LLC joint venture to launch a tokenized stock trading platform, initially targeting tokenized shares of 63 NYSE-listed companies. The application follows the SEC’s Innovation Exemption for Tokenized Securities Venues, issued on Sept. 17, which gives qualifying venues five years of conditional relief from the Exchange Act definition of an exchange when trading tokenized National Market System stocks through permissioned automated market makers and liquidity pools.
OKXICE LLC, a 50-50 venture between OKX and Intercontinental Exchange — the parent of the New York Stock Exchange — submitted paperwork reported by Bloomberg on Oct. 4. The filing had not yet appeared in publicly searchable SEC records when checked. Under the SEC framework, issuers must receive written notice before trading of third-party tokenized shares can begin. They have 30 calendar days to object; if they object, that tokenized stock cannot be made available. The venue must publicly disclose any objection within five business days. The planned 63-stock lineup falls below the SEC’s 75-symbol ceiling for Tier 1 stocks if all names qualify in that category, but the filing did not disclose the tier breakdown.
Unlike OKX’s existing offshore Unified Tokenized Stocks, the U.S. product must preserve real shareholder rights. The SEC requires tokenized shares to carry the same underlying interest in the company, dividends, voting rights, and claims on residual assets during liquidation as conventional shares. Primary offerings are not permitted. Smart contracts must be public and auditable, run on a public permissionless distributed ledger, and trading must halt whenever the underlying stock is halted. Venues must also maintain 30 days of transaction data and update it within 10 minutes after trades occur.
OKX currently offers tokenized stock exposure outside the U.S. covering more than 40 stocks and ETFs, trading 24 hours a day against USDT and supporting deposits and withdrawals on Solana and X Layer. However, OKX states those products do not confer ownership or voting rights. The new OKXICE structure is being developed for U.S. investors under the SEC framework and remains subject to additional regulatory approvals, including potentially operating as a U.S.-registered broker-dealer and futures commission merchant.
The venture was formed in June after ICE’s strategic investment in OKX in March, which valued the crypto exchange at approximately $25 billion. It is co-chaired by former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo and ICE executive Trabue Bland. Cuomo said the next phase of financial markets will be defined by how well innovation and government regulation can move forward together. OKX U.S. CEO Roshan Robert similarly noted that changing the trading technology should not alter an investor’s claim on the underlying company.
