Tesla, SpaceX Among 56 Issuers Objecting to OKX/ICE Tokenized Stock Venue

Tesla and SpaceX are among six new issuers that have formally objected to their shares being offered on OKX and ICE’s planned tokenized stock venue. This action, alongside objections from Amazon, Netflix, Lam Research, and SoFi Technologies, raises the total number of objecting companies to 56. These objections are being lodged under the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) innovation exemption, a regulatory mechanism that allows companies to prevent third parties from offering tokenized versions of their shares on specific trading venues.

The SEC’s innovation exemption, introduced in September, mandates that a venue must notify a company before offering a tokenized version of its shares by an unaffiliated third party. Companies then have a 30-day window to file a written objection. If an objection is received, the venue is prohibited from making that stock available for trading. It is important to note that these objections are venue-specific and do not prevent the shares from being tokenized or traded on other platforms.

The OKXICE TSV venue, a joint venture between Intercontinental Exchange and OKX’s U.S. holding company, plans to offer tokenized U.S. stocks around the clock. This may be facilitated through permissioned Uniswap v4 pools on OKX’s XLayer blockchain, with trading pairs against stablecoins such as USDC. Participation on the venue requires users to complete identity and sanctions checks and to hold a nontransferable ‘soulbound’ token, which the venue’s smart contracts verify prior to each transaction.

The increasing number of objecting companies, which previously included major names like Nvidia, Costco, and Nike, underscores a growing trend of established corporations expressing reservations about the tokenization of their shares on third-party platforms. While Apple is notably absent from the list of objectors, the expanding roster of companies utilizing the SEC’s exemption highlights the dynamic and evolving regulatory landscape for digital securities. The venue’s notice also states it can list shares tokenized by the issuers themselves, though no such issuers have been identified, and that offered tokenized stocks are not restricted to trading solely on OKXICE.

Several uncertainties persist, including whether Apple will eventually object, if any issuers will opt to tokenize their own shares for the venue, and the precise details of the ‘soulbound’ token verification process. These objections do not represent a formal approval or disapproval of the OKXICE TSV venue by the SEC, nor do they imply any endorsement or rejection of tokenization by the objecting companies themselves, according to the SEC’s order and listed in an updated notice from OKXICE TSV.

Why This Matters

The materials describe a narrow update: Tesla and SpaceX, along with Amazon, Netflix, Lam Research, and SoFi Technologies, have formally objected to their shares being offered on a planned tokenized stock venue operated by OKX and ICE. Whether Apple will object to its shares being offered on the venue.

Broader Context

Source materials place the factual news in this context: Under the SEC’s innovation exemption, which the agency unveiled in September after the Clarity Act stalled in the Senate, a venue must notify a company before offering a version of its shares tokenized by an unaffiliated third party.