Nvidia and Nike Lead Biggest Wave Yet of Tokenized Stock Objections

Key Points:

• Nvidia, along with 11 other companies including Costco, Nike, and CrowdStrike, has formally objected to having its shares traded on the OKX and ICE joint venture’s tokenized stock platform, bringing the total number of objecting issuers to 50.
• The objections come under the SEC's innovation exemption, which requires venues to notify companies before offering tokenized versions of their shares; companies can block trading of their stock on that specific venue by objecting in writing within 30 days.
• OKXICE TSV plans to enable 24/7 trading of tokenized U.S. stocks via permissioned Uniswap v4 pools on the OKX XLayer blockchain, paired with stablecoins like USDC, but it is not subject to Regulation NMS, raising concerns about trade reporting and best execution.
• Nasdaq may be influencing companies to opt out of the OKX-ICE tokenized stock venue, reportedly encouraging issuers to object due to concerns about price transparency and trade reporting, as Nasdaq itself has opted out to avoid trading on venues that don’t show best prices in real time.
• Despite the growing list of objectors, major companies like Apple, Tesla, and Amazon have not yet objected to their shares being tokenized and traded on the platform.