OKXICE to debut tokenized stock trading with Strategy, Coinbase, Circle this month

The onchain stock trading venue is set to launch on Nov. 23, OKXICE said Wednesday. More than 70 assets have been confirmed for round-the-clock trading, though not all assets will be available at the start, a spokesperson said.

The lineup also includes Robinhood, BitGo, Securitize and Better.com, while Strategy will have its common and preferred stocks listed. Asset manager Direxion, which oversees $70 billion in assets, will bring 59 ETFs to the venue.

The confirmed lineup gives the venue a starting point after months of planning met widespread resistance from large-cap companies in the initial roster of firms.

OKXICE is set to be the second venue, following Canton-based TSV earlier this month, to start under the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) five-year experiment called the “innovation exemption” to trade tokenized stocks on blockchain rails through automated market makers — software that executes trades using pools of assets instead of matching buyers and sellers through an order book.

“The SEC has created a real opening for American markets to lead the next era of finance,” OKXICE co-chairman Andrew Cuomo said in a statement.

A different lineup

The initial selection looks considerably different from the broad mix of tech, financial, retail and industrial companies OKXICE initially proposed.

Of the 62 companies on its original list, 56 — about 90% — had objected, according to a CoinDesk’s tally. Total objections reached 67, including companies outside that initial selection, with Apple, Microsoft, Nvidia, Amazon, Tesla and JPMorgan Chase among those opting out.

The SEC’s framework gives issuers 30 calendar days after receiving notice to object when an unaffiliated third party arranges the tokenization. The objections have highlighted companies’ caution about trading outside the familiar stock market structure, rather than necessarily opposition to tokenization itself.

The new lineup is concentrated in companies already tied to digital assets, supplemented by Direxion’s funds.

“Our mission has always been to give investors precise tools, delivered in the way they want to use them. As trading behavior evolves, so do we,” Direxion CEO Douglas Yones said in the announcement.

Trading will take place through Uniswap v4 liquidity pools on X Layer, OKX’s Ethereum layer-2 network. Securitize will provide tokenization infrastructure, with the tokens representing security entitlements to the underlying shares, preserving shareholder rights including dividends, voting and participation in corporate actions.

Access will initially be available to eligible U.S.-based OKX Inc. customers who have completed identity checks and onboarding. The securities will remain in customers’ self-custodial wallets. OKXICE said it will not hold their assets or private keys.