The tokenized US stock trading venture backed by OKX and Intercontinental Exchange (ICE), the parent of the New York Stock Exchange, is facing a widening wave of corporate resistance. Public objections tied to the SEC's five-year innovation exemption have reached 62 firms in the latest disclosures, up from 50 objections in late October.
Amazon, Tesla, SpaceX, Netflix, SoFi Technologies and Lam Research were among the companies added in early November. The objector list later expanded to include Apple, GE Vernova, Home Depot, Boeing, Nebius and ServiceNow. As a result, six of the so-called Magnificent Seven — Apple, Amazon, Tesla, Nvidia, Microsoft and Alphabet — are now reported to oppose third-party tokenization through the OKXICE venue. Of the 62 objectors, 54 were on the platform's initial selection list, while eight companies not originally included also preemptively objected.
OKXICE plans to offer around-the-clock trading in tokenized US equities settled in stablecoins. The venture's regulatory disclosures say trades would run through permissioned Uniswap v4 liquidity pools on OKX's X Layer blockchain, with prices set by automated market makers rather than a conventional limit order book. Users would need to complete identity verification, sanctions screening and wallet checks. Approved wallets would receive a nontransferable credential, and each token would represent an entitlement to one underlying share held by an authorized tokenizer through a registered broker-dealer.
Under the SEC framework, issuers have 30 calendar days from written notification to object to an unaffiliated third-party venue offering tokenized shares. OKXICE has up to five business days to publish objections filed near the deadline, meaning the total could still rise. An objection does not prevent a company from joining other tokenization arrangements or issuing its own tokenized securities.
Concerns cited in reports include possible effects on share price, trading volume, liquidity and volatility, as well as investor confusion about whether a company approved a tokenized product built without its involvement. Some issuers also have reservations about market transparency, shareholder rights and OKX's offshore status.
Figure CEO Mike Cagney criticized the automated market maker design, saying it would make execution worse than a limit order book. "We're going to have to do more than this SEC sandbox to get stocks on public blockchains," he wrote. "Native equity on chain, issued by the company, available for borrow and loan in DeFi. That is the way."
OKXICE co-chairman and former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said many companies were waiting to see how the platform operates before deciding whether to participate, and predicted more would join as familiarity with tokenization grows. He did not give a launch date or say how many tokenized stocks would be available when trading begins.
The objections do not stop the broader tokenized securities push. Morgan Stanley has begun tokenizing US stocks and Treasuries through the DTCC, going live on October 28 with 34 securities backed 1-to-1 by custody-held assets. Separately, Securitize has offered eligible investors tokenized US stocks on Solana, including exposure to Apple, Nvidia, Tesla, Microsoft and Amazon.
