Broadcom, Verizon and CoreWeave among nine companies objecting to tokenised trading of their shares on OKXICE

Nine US-listed companies have formally objected to tokenised versions of their shares trading on OKXICE, a joint venture between crypto exchange OKX and New York Stock Exchange owner Intercontinental Exchange, according to a public notice from the venue reported by The Block and Bitcoin.com News.

The notice, dated 15 October, lists Cerebras Systems, AppLovin, Applied Digital, Rocket Lab, CoreWeave, Verizon, Applied Optoelectronics, Broadcom and UnitedHealth Group. It does not give reasons. The Wall Street Journal first reported the objections.

A spokeswoman for Applied Optoelectronics told the Journal the company was unsure how tokenisation would affect its share price, liquidity and volatility, and saw no clear benefit “to AOI or our shareholders”, The Block reported.

OKXICE plans to operate under a five-year innovation exemption the Securities and Exchange Commission issued on 17 September. Under the exemption, a company whose stock is tokenised by a third party can file an objection within 30 days of being notified, which bars that venue from offering its shares, The Block reported, citing law firm summaries of the order.

OKXICE told the Journal it still plans to offer tokens of dozens of companies, including Nvidia, Apple and Microsoft. The notice does not give a launch date. Trading is planned in permissioned pools on OKX’s X Layer network, with shares paired against the USDC, USDG and USDT stablecoins.

Separately, Nasdaq said in an FAQ on its website that it will opt out of having its own shares tokenised under the SEC framework, The Block reported.