Nvidia, Costco and Nike join pushback against OKX–ICE tokenized stock plans

By CoinDesk4 hours ago Updated

Nvidia (NVDA), Costco (COST), Nike (NKE) and Micron Technology (MU) are the latest companies to say they don’t want their shares traded on a new blockchain-based stock marketplace being built by crypto exchange OKX and NYSE parent Intercontinental Exchange.

Their objections bring the total to 50, according to an updated public notice dated Friday, Oct. 30, from OKXICE, the two firms’ joint venture.

The venue would let investors trade digital versions of U.S. stocks around the clock, paying with stablecoins. It is being developed under the SEC’s five-year “Innovation Exemption,” which allows companies to block their shares from trading on such platforms when the tokenization is arranged by an unaffiliated third party.

The growing list shows how cautious companies remain about the experiment. Supporters promise longer trading hours and faster settlement, but issuers are still weighing whether those benefits would attract more investors to their shares and how trading outside the familiar stock market would affect them.

Friday’s notice adds 12 companies. Besides Nvidia, Costco and Micron, they are CrowdStrike (CRWD), Corning (GLW), IREN (IREN), USA Rare Earth (USAR), Bloom Energy (BE), Nike (NKE), Palo Alto Networks (PANW), Reddit (RDDT) and Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE).

Of the 62 companies OKXICE initially picked for trading, 43 — about 69% — have now objected, according to a CoinDesk tally. Seven other objectors were outside that original selection.

Andrew Cuomo, OKXICE’s co-chairman and former New York governor, said during a Friday press conference that many companies wanted to see how the market worked before joining.

“I think the more people become familiar with tokenization, and the more they see the benefits of tokenization, I think you'll see more and more companies participate,” Cuomo said. “But we are at the very beginning of the rollout of fundamentally different market structure.”

No disclosed objection

There are 19 companies from the original selection thathave no disclosed objection as of Friday’s notice. Those include Apple (AAPL), Amazon (AMZN), Tesla (TSLA), SpaceX (SPCX), Netflix (NFLX), Palantir (PLTR) and Strategy (MSTR).

The others are Robinhood (HOOD), Coinbase (COIN), Circle (CRCL), SoFi Technologies (SOFI), Super Micro Computer (SMCI), Lam Research (LRCX), ServiceNow (NOW), GE Vernova (GEV), Boeing (BA), Home Depot (HD), Securitize (SECZ) and BitGo (BTGO).

Absence from the objection list does not establish that a company has endorsed the venue or that its shares will be available at launch. Tokenization specialist Securitize and digital asset custodian BitGo previously told CoinDesk they did not plan to object.

Under the SEC’s rules, companies can object on or before the 30th calendar day after receiving a venue’s written notice. For companies that received notice on Oct. 4, when OKXICE published its initial filing, that would put the deadline around Tuesday, Nov. 3. The clock starts upon receipt of the issuer notice, however, and Friday’s filing does not establish a single deadline for every company.

Venues have up to five business days to disclose an objection, meaning the published list can lag companies’ responses.

The objections do not necessarily signal opposition to tokenization itself. JPMorgan Chase, an earlier objector, told CoinDesk it remains encouraged by the technology’s potential but wants to be thoughtful about how its shares are represented and traded.