OKX, ICE to Launch 24/7 Tokenized Stock Trading

OKXICE Plans 24/7 Trading Venue for Tokenized U.S. Stocks

OKXICE, a joint venture between cryptocurrency exchange OKX and Intercontinental Exchange (ICE), the owner of the New York Stock Exchange, has informed the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) of its intention to launch a round-the-clock trading venue for tokenized U.S. stocks. The announcement was made by co-chair Andrew Cuomo in a tweet on Monday.

The venture published a notice dated October 4, leveraging the SEC’s “Innovation Exemption.” This exemption, in effect since September 17, permits qualifying venues to trade tokenized stocks without the need for formal exchange registration. According to the notice, OKXICE will operate its venue 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

The SEC does not individually approve such venues. Instead, firms that meet the exemption’s conditions notify the agency and can commence operations under its purview, provided they adhere to the stipulated requirements.

Cuomo, a former New York governor, hailed the filing as “a landmark step toward a truly global, 24/7 Wall Street.”

The notice lists several prominent companies, including Nvidia, Tesla, Apple, Microsoft, and SpaceX, alongside crypto-focused firms such as Coinbase, Circle, Strategy, Robinhood, BitGo, and Securitize. Each tokenized stock will be traded in a pair with one of three stablecoins: USDC, USDG, or Tether’s USDT.

In June, an OKX spokesperson indicated to Fortune that the venture would concentrate on tokenizing equities listed on the NYSE. However, Nvidia, Tesla, Apple, and Microsoft are all listed on the Nasdaq.

The filing also reveals that chipmaker Cerebras Systems has lodged a notice of issuer objection with the venture. The exemption allows third parties to tokenize a company’s shares without its direct involvement, but the venue is obligated to notify the issuer and provide a 30-day window for objections. If an objection is raised, the tokens cannot be traded on that venue. Cerebras Systems does not appear on the notice’s list of participating companies.

Trades will be facilitated through permissioned Uniswap v4 liquidity pools on XLayer, a layer-2 blockchain. A custom smart contract will oversee and verify every transaction. Trading and liquidity provision will be restricted to wallets holding a non-transferable soulbound token, issued after identity verification, anti-money laundering, and sanctions checks conducted by OKX’s U.S. entity.

The notice cautions that tokenized prices, determined solely by the liquidity pools, may deviate from the prices of the underlying shares, particularly outside of regular exchange trading hours.

The tokens themselves are sourced from an unaffiliated third party, identified only as “the Tokenizer.” This entity holds the underlying shares on a one-for-one basis through a registered broker-dealer, though its identity is not disclosed in the notice. Holders of these tokens are entitled to the same dividends and voting rights as ordinary shareholders, according to the filing.

ICE and OKX established their 50-50 joint venture in June, three months after ICE acquired a minority stake in OKX at a valuation of $25 billion. The two entities had previously collaborated to bring crypto-native perpetual futures for oil to market for non-U.S. customers. Cuomo, who also served as New York’s attorney general, has been working with OKX since 2023.

The SEC issued the exemption on September 17, following months of deliberation after Chair Paul Atkins revised an earlier January target due to pushback from Wall Street groups, and days after the Clarity Act failed to advance in the Senate.

Atkins stated that the SEC was acting “within its statutory authority,” and officials characterized the exemption as a temporary measure intended to bridge the gap towards permanent rulemaking.

Chris Hayes, executive director of the Coalition for Tokenized Markets, commented at the time that the exemption “could put DeFi trading platforms and liquidity pools in much more direct competition with traditional exchanges.”

The notice does not specify a launch date for the trading venue.