More than 60 US-listed companies, Nvidia, Apple and JPMorgan Chase among them, are on the list of stocks that a joint venture between crypto exchange OKX and Intercontinental Exchange wants to trade as tokens around the clock.
The venture, OKXICE, has notified the Securities and Exchange Commission that it intends to launch the venue, CoinDesk and The Block reported on Monday. CoinDesk describes it as a 50-50 partnership between OKX and the owner of the New York Stock Exchange. Andrew Cuomo, the former New York governor, is its co-chair.
It has not applied to become an exchange, and does not need to. The plan relies on the innovation exemption the SEC issued on 17 September, which lets venues trade tokenised US stocks for five years without registering as one.
Trading would be permissioned and run on X Layer, OKX’s own blockchain, with faster settlement than the conventional market. The tokens are meant to carry the same dividend and voting rights as ordinary shares.
The companies themselves have a limited say. Under the exemption, an issuer gets 30 days to object to its shares being tokenised.
The market being chased is still small. Tokenised stocks are worth about $3.2 billion in total, by CoinDesk’s count, up 15 percent in a month. OKX already lists more than 70 tokenised tickers, but only offshore and only to non-US investors.
What the notice does not include is a launch date, or any indication of how many of the 60 companies have been asked. ICE runs the exchange where many of them are listed. Whether those issuers see a second, always-open market in their shares as a convenience or as competition for the first is something the 30-day window will reveal.
