OKX filed with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to trade tokenized US stocks through OKXICE LLC, a joint venture with Intercontinental Exchange (ICE), the parent company of the New York Stock Exchange. The venue plans to begin with 63 companies listed on the NYSE.
The SEC's five-year Innovation Exemption for on-chain trading, which opened shortly before OKX's filing, caps each venue at 75 eligible stocks, typically members of the S&P 500 and Russell 1000. OKX's initial 63 names would occupy most of this ceiling.
Trading Constraints and Issuer Controls
The exemption imposes significant operational limits. Each tokenized stock's trading volume cannot exceed 0.25% of the stock's prior-month volume on traditional markets. A breach forces a three-month trading pause for that security.
Issuers retain veto power over tokenization. Companies that did not authorize the creation of tokenized versions of their shares can object within 30 days of receiving notice from the venue, preventing their listing.
Competition and Regulatory Timeline
Other crypto platforms face identical constraints under the exemption. Coinbase launched tokenized US stocks for eligible non-US customers in August.
The exemption remains an agency order rather than legislation and expires in September 2031. The Senate did not advance the Clarity Act, a bill addressing federal crypto market rules, in recent proceedings. The SEC has inquired whether to make exemptions permanent, though the regulatory landscape could shift with a new Congress.
NYSE has separately struck an early-stage agreement with Blockchain.com to launch its own digital securities venue.
