Walmart, Eli Lilly, Cigna Group, Carnival, and Arcos Dorados have joined the growing list of companies objecting to the OKX-ICE tokenized stock trading venue. According to an Oct. 28 notice from the venue, these additions bring the total number of objecting firms to 38, up from just nine on Oct. 15. The pushback now spans retail, healthcare, and travel sectors, expanding beyond the initial focus on tech and finance.
The SEC’s innovation exemption allows companies to block their shares from being tokenized by third parties if they object within 30 days of notification. This exemption, introduced in September, has given companies significant leverage in controlling how their stocks appear on blockchain-based trading platforms. OKX-ICE TSV, a joint venture between Intercontinental Exchange and OKX’s U.S. holding company, plans to offer 24/7 trading of tokenized U.S. stocks through permissioned Uniswap v4 pools on OKX’s XLayer blockchain.
The venue’s operations are capped at 75 of the largest, most liquid stocks, with trading limited to 0.25% of each stock’s average daily volume. Additionally, up to 250 other stocks can be traded at 2.5% of their average daily volume. Despite the objections, the venue has not yet listed any shares tokenized by the issuers themselves, which would allow companies direct control over their onchain representation.
Notable absences from the objection list include heavily traded names like Nvidia, Tesla, Apple, and Amazon. The SEC’s order allows companies 30 days from receiving notice to object, suggesting the list may continue to grow in the coming weeks.