Fifty publicly traded companies have protested the tokenization of their shares on OKXICE, a joint venture between cryptocurrency exchange OKX and Intercontinental Exchange (ICE), the parent company of the New York Stock Exchange.
According to the exchange’s public notice of October 30, Nvidia, Nike, Costco, Micron, and Reddit are among the latest companies to oppose the proposed trading agreement. The list grew from 38 issuers on October 28, adding 12 objections over two days.
Journalist Eleanor Terrett reported the updated figures on November 1. OKXICE initially identified 62 companies, represented by 63 ticker symbols, for potential tokenization, although some of the subsequent objecting companies were not included in the original list.
Nvidia and Nike join the protest against OKXICE
The latest objections bring several major technology, retail, and industrial companies into an already sizable group of issuers rejecting the proposed trading venue.
Alongside Nvidia, Micron, Nike, Costco, and Reddit, the companies that joined the action on October 30 include CrowdStrike, Corning, IREN, USA Rare Earth, Bloom Energy, Palo Alto Networks, and Hewlett Packard Enterprise.
Earlier objections came from Microsoft, Alphabet, Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase, AMD, Intel, and Walmart.
In total, just four days earlier, the venue had received 26 objections. Another seven appeared in the notice dated October 27, followed by five on October 28 and 12 in the latest filing.
As a result of the count, the total number of protests has increased by 24 companies since October 26.
The public OKXICE notice, which lists the companies’ names and ticker symbols, did not provide individual explanations.
As previously reported, the objections emerged amid claims that Nasdaq representatives were urging exchange-listed companies to resist the project.
Nasdaq declined to directly comment on these claims. An exchange representative separately described the exchange’s preference for an issuer-initiated approach to tokenization within existing market structures.
SEC rules allow issuers to block third-party stock tokens
These objections carry consequences under the interim exemption from trading rules introduced by the Securities and Exchange Commission on September 17.
According to the published SEC order, a trading venue must notify the company in which it is registered before offering shares tokenized by an independent third party.
Issuers have 30 calendar days from receipt of such a notice to file a written objection. If they object within the permitted period, the venue cannot offer those tokenized shares under the exemption.
As a result, OKXICE must remove from its proposed third-party trading agreement any securities subject to valid objections.
The restriction applies specifically to this venue and a tokenization model not affiliated with either party. It does not prevent a company from supporting tokenization elsewhere or issuing its own tokenized shares.
In previous coverage of issuer objections, this distinction became key, as companies began rejecting unauthorized versions of their exchange-traded shares.
The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) requires that tokenized securities covered by its exemption preserve the economic and ownership rights associated with common shares.
These include dividends, voting rights, and claims on company assets. The underlying shares must be held under appropriate custodial arrangements and be backed one-for-one.
