OKXICE Aims for Global 24/7 Market with Tokenized US Stocks

The joint venture between Intercontinental Exchange (ICE) and cryptocurrency exchange OKX, OKXICE, has notified the SEC of its plans to operate a tokenized securities venue (TSV) under a five-year exemption. The exemption allows venues trading tokenized US stocks through permissioned automated market makers to avoid being treated as exchanges, provided they meet certain conditions.

The notice covers over 60 NMS stocks, including Apple, Nvidia, Tesla, JPMorgan, and Goldman Sachs, which will trade against a payment stablecoin (USDC, USDG, or USDT) in permissioned Uniswap v4 liquidity pools deployed on XLayer, OKX's layer 2 blockchain.

According to Andrew Cuomo, Co-Chair of OKXICE, the filing is a 'landmark step toward a truly global, 24/7 Wall Street.' Star Xu, CEO of OKX, stated that 'real ownership, onchain' is the future of markets, and that 'full shareholder rights are what make that possible.'

However, the venue's decentralized exchange technology is controlled by OKXICE, which creates every pool, permissions every wallet through soulbound tokens, can pause trading, and upgrade contracts. The joint venture also has administrative authority over the contracts, exercised through keys managed by its affiliate OKX Technology.