Six more companies objected to OKXICE's plan to offer tokens representing their shares, Reuters reported Oct. 23, bringing the reported number of objecting companies to 22 under SEC rules that can block those tokens.
Reuters named Wells Fargo, Arm Holdings and Intuit among the six newly identified companies. The document it reviewed did not state why the firms objected, and the report did not identify the other three. Reuters placed 16 of the 22 companies on Nasdaq and the remaining six on the New York Stock Exchange, which Intercontinental Exchange owns.
OKXICE is planned as a joint venture linking crypto exchange OKX with Intercontinental Exchange (ICE), owner of the New York Stock Exchange. In March, ICE said the partnership would create a venture giving U.S. customers access to markets operated by the two companies. EconoTimes previously covered 16 issuer objections to OKXICE's third-party token route; those objections did not rule out shares tokenized by issuers themselves.
On Sept. 17, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) issued an order giving eligible tokenized securities venues a temporary, conditional carve-out from the Exchange Act's definition of an exchange. A venue must notify an issuer before offering a third-party token for that issuer's stock. Trading cannot start until at least 30 calendar days have passed since the issuer received notice. If a written objection reaches the venue on or before day 30, the venue cannot offer that token under the exemption.
Venue operators must ensure tokens preserve the economic and governance rights associated with equivalent shares, including dividends and voting. The order also caps the number of stock symbols and trading volume.
The SEC's venue list records an Oct. 4 notice submission by OKXICE. The agency says the entry alone does not establish that OKXICE meets the exemption's requirements.
Reuters has also reported that crypto-industry advocates cite round-the-clock trading and instant settlement as potential benefits of tokenized shares. Those are advocates' claims, not outcomes promised by the SEC order.
