OKXICE objections hit 22 as Wells Fargo and Cisco opt out

Wells Fargo, Cisco, Arm Holdings, Intuit, Moderna and Marvell Technology have objected to tokenized copies of their shares trading on OKXICE, the planned venue from crypto exchange OKX and NYSE owner Intercontinental Exchange (ICE). The six names appear in an updated public notice OKXICE filed on Friday, Oct. 23, CoinDesk reported, citing Reuters. The disclosed total of objecting issuers is now 22.

Who has said no so far

• New this week (Friday): Wells Fargo (WFC), Cisco (CSCO), Arm (ARM), Intuit (INTU), Moderna (MRNA), Marvell (MRVL).
• Earlier: Microsoft, Alphabet, Goldman Sachs and McDonald's were among seven companies added on Monday, which we covered in Microsoft, Alphabet and Goldman reject OKXICE stock tokens. The first batch of nine is in our earlier report.

Not every objection removes a stock from the launch list. OKXICE's original roster had 62 companies; Wells Fargo and Arm were not on it, and nor was Cerebras Systems, whose objection was disclosed earlier. Cisco, Moderna, Intuit and Marvell were. An objection blocks trading on this one venue only; it does not mean the company opposes every form of tokenization.

How the rules work

The SEC's five-year Innovation Exemption lets qualifying tokenized securities venues test round-the-clock trading through automated market makers. OKXICE plans to use Uniswap liquidity pools on OKX's X Layer network, settled in stablecoins. Before listing a stock, the venue must notify the issuer and wait 30 days. If the company says nothing, trading can start, and law firm Latham & Watkins has warned issuers that the order offers no way to object later or withdraw consent once trading begins. New to the concept? Read what tokenized stocks are.

Why the list keeps growing

Several people in the industry told CoinDesk the opt-outs are less a verdict than a rational default:

• Vertalo CEO Dave Hendricks said most companies did not know a third party had tokenized their stock until the notice appeared, and quickly faced questions about who holds the underlying shares and how dividends and votes reach token holders.
• Ava Labs' head of tokenization Olivia Vande Woude said objecting costs nothing while silence counts as consent, so the next venue to send notices should expect similar resistance. She called the exemption "a data-gathering exercise".
• Nasdaq, a tokenization supporter, intends to object for its own NDAQ shares, arguing that venues outside the national market system could fragment liquidity and lack safeguards such as consolidated-tape reporting.

OKXICE co-chair Andrew Cuomo said this week that the venture always expected many companies to "wait and see", describing the framework as a sandbox.