Several US-listed companies have submitted formal objections that prevent tokenized versions of their shares from trading on OKXICE, a planned Tokenized Securities Venue.
According to the venue’s public notice dated October 15, 2026, the companies that have filed Notices of Issuer Objection are Cerebras Systems Inc., AppLovin Corporation, Applied Digital Corporation, Rocket Lab Corporation, CoreWeave, Inc., Verizon Communications Inc., Applied Optoelectronics, Inc., Broadcom Inc., and UnitedHealth Group Incorporated.
OKXICE is a Texas limited liability company owned equally by Intercontinental Exchange Holdings and OKC USA Holding.
It intends to offer secondary market trading of tokenized National Market System securities through permissioned automated market maker liquidity pools on the XLayer blockchain.
The pools would pair the tokens with stablecoins such as USDC, USDG, or USDT and operate around the clock.
Access requires participants to complete identity, anti-money-laundering, and sanctions screening before receiving a non-transferable credential that permits interaction with the contracts.
The tokens themselves would be issued by an unaffiliated third party that holds the underlying shares one-for-one through a registered broker-dealer, with the design intended to convey equivalent economic and voting rights, including dividends and residual claims on liquidation.
The platform operates under the Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) temporary Innovation Exemption, issued on September 17, 2026.
The exemption provides conditional relief from the definitions of “exchange” and, for certain liquidity providers, “dealer,” allowing qualifying venues to facilitate permissioned on-chain trading of tokenized US equities without full registration as national securities exchanges.
Key conditions include volume and symbol caps, public and auditable smart contracts, coordinated trading halts, and a notice-and-objection mechanism for issuers.
Before a venue may make available for trading a tokenized version of an issuer’s shares created by an unaffiliated third party, it must deliver written notice to the issuer.
The issuer then has 30 calendar days to deliver a Notice of Issuer Objection.
A timely objection bars that particular venue from offering the tokens under the exemption.
The right is limited to the notifying venue and does not constitute a blanket prohibition on tokenization by other platforms.
Eight of the nine objecting companies appeared among the more than 60 tickers OKXICE identified in its earlier October 4 notice as stocks it planned to support.
Cerebras Systems had already objected and was not included in that initial roster.
The October 15 notice records the objections without stating the companies’ reasons.
OKXICE has indicated it continues to prepare trading in numerous remaining names that have not objected, including widely held companies such as Nvidia, Apple, Microsoft, Amazon, and others.
Applied Optoelectronics is the only objector to have publicly explained its position.
A company spokeswoman told The Wall Street Journal that the firm was uncertain how tokenization would affect its share price, liquidity, and volatility.
She also noted the risk that investors might mistakenly believe the company had sponsored or endorsed an offering it did not initiate, and said management saw no clear benefit to the company or its shareholders sufficient to accept those uncertainties.
Separately, Nasdaq has stated that it intends to opt out of Tokenized Securities Venues for its own shares.
In a frequently asked questions document published on its website, the exchange explains that, after reviewing the Innovation Exemption, Nasdaq, Inc. plans to exercise the issuer objection right.
The document emphasizes that the exemption does not require venues to display best prices in real time or report activity to the consolidated tape in the same manner as traditional equity markets, and that opt-outs apply only on a per-venue basis.
These objections represent an early test of the issuer safeguard built into the five-year experimental framework.
While technical and regulatory pathways exist for third-party tokenization, the responses demonstrate that public companies retain the ability to keep specific venues from offering tokens of their shares.
Because each objection is venue-specific, the same shares could still be tokenized and traded elsewhere if other platforms complete their own notice processes and issuers do not object. The development underscores that issuer consent, or the absence of timely objection, will shape which names appear on blockchain-based equity venues as the temporary exemption period begins.
