Walmart, Eli Lilly, Carnival, Arcos Dorados and Cigna have formally objected to tokenized versions of their shares trading on the OKXICE Tokenized Securities Venue, according to the October 28 public notice. The additions bring the total number of disclosed issuer objections to 38, up from 33 on October 27 and just nine in the October 15 notice. The original October 4 proposal had identified 62 companies represented by 63 stock symbols, meaning the repeated opt-outs are steadily narrowing the venue's potential stock roster without cancelling the project.
OKXICE is a 50-50 joint venture between Intercontinental Exchange Holdings and OKC USA Holding. The proposed platform would offer secondary trading of tokenized NMS stocks through permissioned Uniswap v4 liquidity pools on X Layer. Participants would need to complete identity, AML, sanctions and wallet screening before trading. The model pairs tokenized shares with supported payment stablecoins, with underlying shares held one-for-one through a registered broker-dealer, and tokenized securities are designed to pass through rights equivalent to the underlying shares, including dividends, voting rights and residual claims upon liquidation.
The expanding objection list has also raised questions about Nasdaq's role. Journalist Jacquelyn Melinek reported that an executive at a Nasdaq-listed company said an exchange representative contacted the company and suggested filing an objection, even offering to arrange a call explaining the reasons. Nasdaq declined to comment directly on the reported outreach, while a spokesperson reiterated that the exchange does not intend to operate a Tokenized Securities Venue under the SEC's temporary innovation exemption and is instead working with Kraken on a separate tokenization model targeted for the second quarter of 2027. Of the 38 objecting companies, 23 are Nasdaq-listed.
Under the SEC's September 17 exemption, qualifying venues may offer tokenized U.S. shares through permissioned automated market makers without registering as conventional securities exchanges. When an unaffiliated third party tokenizes a company's stock, the venue must notify the issuer before trading begins, and companies have 30 calendar days from receipt of that notice to submit a written objection. A timely objection prevents that particular venue from offering the affected shares under the exemption, but does not prohibit a company from sponsoring its own tokenized shares elsewhere. Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev has argued that companies should not automatically be able to veto tokenized stock products when the structures do not alter corporate obligations or official shareholder records. Separately, Canton Strategic Holdings announced plans to make its shares available on TSV LLC using the Canton Network as early as November 2, with Fairmint acting as an SEC-registered transfer agent.
