Apple, Meta reject OKX–ICE tokenized stock plans, leaving crypto firms as the ones to watch

Apple (AAPL) and Facebook parent Meta Platforms (META) are among the latest companies rejecting tokenized stock trading plans by crypto exchange OKX and NYSE parent Intercontinental Exchange.

The shrinking group without a disclosed objection now consists entirely of companies with ties to the crypto industry.

Strategy (MSTR), Coinbase (COIN), Circle (CRCL) and Robinhood (HOOD) have remained absent from the objection list in OKXICE’s public notice dated Thursday, Nov. 5. So have Securitize (SECZ) and BitGo (BTGO), which previously told CoinDesk they did not plan to object to the listing.

Their decisions could help determine what investors will actually be able to trade on the planned blockchain-based market. Of the 62 companies OKXICE initially picked, 56 — about 90% — have objected, according to a CoinDesk tally.

That leaves a much narrower potential starting point for a venture that originally sought to offer shares spanning megacap tech, banking, retail and industrial companies.

Total disclosed objections have reached 67, including 11 companies outside the original selection. Thursday’s additions were Meta, Palantir (PLTR), S&P Global (SPGI), KLA (KLAC) and Super Micro Computer (SMCI). Apple, Home Depot, GE Vernova, Nebius, Boeing and ServiceNow appeared earlier this week.

OKXICE plans to offer round-the-clock trading of tokenized U.S. stocks, with payments settled in stablecoins. It would operate under the SEC’s five-year “Innovation Exemption,” which allows qualifying venues to use automated market makers — software that executes trades through pools of assets instead of an order book.

Companies have 30 calendar days after receiving notice to block trading of their shares when tokenized by an unaffiliated third party. Venues have up to five business days to publish objections, so the public list can lag issuers’ decisions.

The deadline for the issuers appearing in the Oct. 4 public notice passed this week, but OKXICE may not have disclosed all the objections yet.

Meanwhile, Canton-based venue TSV went live earlier this week trading tokenized shares of Canton Strategic Holdings (CNTN), using an issuer-sponsored approach that avoids the 30-day objection process.

OKXICE co-chairman and former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said during a press conference last week that companies outside the initial selection had approached the venture about joining, though he declined to identify them or provide a count. He also argued that familiarity with the new market would encourage participation.