OKX and ICE to launch tokenized stock trading on Nov. 23 despite pushback

OKX and Intercontinental Exchange, the parent of the New York Stock Exchange, will start trading tokenized stocks on Nov. 23 through a joint venture called OKXICE. The venue operates under the US Securities and Exchange Commission's temporary Innovation Exemption and will offer eligible American customers round-the-clock trading. It is moving ahead anyway, over the objections of 67 companies that don't want their shares listed.

Under the exemption, venues must give companies a chance to object before listing shares tokenized by an unaffiliated third party. JPMorgan Chase, McDonald's, SpaceX and Coca-Cola were among the firms that pushed back. Nasdaq argued in a January filing that trading the same shares on platforms outside traditional rails could fragment liquidity and make it harder for investors to get the best available price.

OKX expects the venue to carry more than 70 assets, including 59 exchange-traded funds and tokenized shares of Coinbase, Circle, BitGo, Robinhood and Strategy, plus Strategy's preferred shares. Former New York governor and OKXICE co-chair Andrew Cuomo told Cointelegraph that investors would get the same rights, protections and ownership that come with the underlying shares.

Cuomo called the current market structure one that was built for another era, saying crypto markets had already shown trading could run around the clock. Now that standard is coming to equities, he said, without asking investors to settle for synthetic exposure or give up their shareholder rights. Regular US stock trading runs from 9:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. Eastern on weekdays, excluding market holidays, though some brokers offer premarket, after-hours and overnight sessions.

The distributed value of tokenized stocks and ETFs reached $3.88 billion on Nov. 11, up 13.4% over 30 days. An October study by the International Monetary Fund found tokenized stocks were about 1.5 times as volatile as the same stocks in traditional markets, with decentralized exchanges showing the weakest liquidity and prices straying further from traditional markets than on centralized exchanges. The IMF also warned that combining trading and settlement on a blockchain could remove safeguards that help markets absorb shocks, and that heavier leverage and closer links between markets could amplify fire sales, liquidity runs and financial contagion.