Walmart, Eli Lilly, Carnival, Arcos Dorados and Cigna have objected to OKX and Intercontinental Exchange listing tokenised versions of their shares, according to an updated notice dated 28 October, CoinDesk reports.
CoinDesk’s tally has objections from 38 companies against an original list of 62, which is more than half. Some objectors, including Arcos Dorados and Cigna, were not on the original roster, so the ratio is rough.
Earlier objectors include Cerebras, Arm and Wells Fargo. JPMorgan Chase objected in a notice dated Tuesday but said that does not rule out taking part later.
The mechanism comes from the SEC’s five-year exemption, which lets qualifying venues trade tokenised US stocks through automated market makers. When an unaffiliated party tokenises a company’s shares, the venue must tell the issuer, which then has 30 days to object.
Silence lets trading go ahead, and there is no later way to withdraw consent. OKX and ICE issued their first public notice on 4 October, so the objection windows are running now.
A rival route avoids the contest. Canton Strategic Holdings said its shares could begin trading as early as Monday on a Canton-based venue, with Fairmint as transfer agent. Because the issuer sponsors that tokenisation, the 30-day objection process does not apply.
What is unresolved is whether any objector reverses, and what issuers would gain from taking part. It is also unclear whether Canton’s first trade arrives on schedule, or how an issuer-sponsored listing trades against a contested one.
