Walmart, Eli Lilly join growing pushback against OKX–ICE tokenized stock plans

Walmart (WMT), Eli Lilly (LLY) and three other companies opted out of tokenized stock trading plans by crypto exchange OKX and NYSE parent Intercontinental Exchange (ICE), taking objections to more than 50% of the companies on the venture’s original roster.

Carnival (CCL), Arcos Dorados (ARCO) and Cigna (CI) also appeared in an updated public notice dated Oct. 28, from the OKXICE venture. The additions bring disclosed objections to 38 of the original 62, according to a CoinDesk tally.

The growing list highlights issuers’ caution about a new market structure taking shape under the SEC’s “innovation exemption.” The framework gives venues room to test blockchain-based stock trading, but companies are still weighing how those markets would work and what they stand to gain.

Arcos Dorados and Cigna were outside the original roster of proposed listings, as were earlier objectors Cerebras Systems, Arm Holdings and Wells Fargo.

Issuers take a cautious approach

OKXICE issued its initial public notice on Oct. 4, outlining plans for round-the-clock stock trading.

The SEC’s five-year exemption plan allows qualifying venues to trade tokenized U.S. stocks through automated market makers — software that executes trades using pools of assets. When an unaffiliated third party tokenizes a company’s shares, venues must notify the issuer and give it 30 days to object.

As CoinDesk’s Tokenization Weekly explored, those rules encourage caution: objecting costs nothing, while staying silent allows trading to begin without a mechanism to withdraw that consent later.

JPMorgan Chase, whose objection appeared in Tuesday’s notice, said its decision did not rule out future participation.

“We are encouraged by the potential of tokenization but also need to be thoughtful about how our shares are represented and traded,” a spokesperson told CoinDesk. “We’ve decided not to participate in this venue at this stage but will continue to evaluate opportunities as the market develops.”

Meanwhile, Canton Strategic Holdings (CNTN) said Thursday its shares could begin trading on Canton-based marketplace TSV LLC as early as Monday, with Fairmint serving as transfer agent. That arrangement uses issuer-sponsored tokenization, avoiding the 30-day company objection process that applies to unaffiliated third-party tokenization.