JPMorgan, Coca-Cola and Dell Refuse to Trade Stocks on OKX-ICE

JPMorgan Chase, Coca-Cola, and Dell Technologies have joined the growing number of companies opposing plans for trading tokenized stocks by the cryptocurrency exchange OKX and the parent company of NYSE, Intercontinental Exchange. Nearly half of the companies from the initial list have now opted out of participation.

Seven new objections—JPMorgan, Coca-Cola, Dell, Applied Materials, Adobe, and Sandisk—appeared in the updated public notice from OKXICE on Tuesday, October 27. The total number of disclosed opt-outs has increased from 26 to 33. Out of 62 companies initially proposed for trading, 30—about 48%, according to CoinDesk calculations—have objected. Some objectors, including Wells Fargo, Arm, and Cerebras, were not on this list.

Issuer Caution

The growing list of opt-outs shows how cautiously issuers are approaching the new market structure forming under the SEC's 'Innovation Exemption.' This regime gives platforms room to test blockchain stock trading, but companies are still assessing how such markets will operate and what they will gain from participation, experts from CoinDesk previously reported.

OKXICE published the initial notice on October 4, outlining plans for 24/7 trading through Uniswap v4 liquidity pools on OKX's XLayer blockchain with settlements in stablecoins. The platform will operate under a five-year 'Innovation Exemption' from the SEC, which allows qualified platforms to trade tokenized stocks using automated market makers. Companies have 30 days after the notice to object to inclusion.

OKXICE Co-Chair Andrew Cuomo previously stated that many companies are expected to wait for market developments before participating, calling the SEC's limited experiment a 'sandbox, a model demonstration.'