Microsoft, Alphabet and Goldman Sachs among seven new objectors to OKXICE tokenized stock trading

Microsoft, Alphabet and Goldman Sachs are among seven companies newly disclosed Monday as objectors to tokenized stock trading on OKXICE, the venue planned by OKX and Intercontinental Exchange. Qualcomm, Caterpillar, McDonald's and Western Digital were also named in the notice, according to CoinDesk, joining earlier objectors including Broadcom, Verizon and UnitedHealth and bringing the total to 16.

Andrew Cuomo, co-chairman of the OKX-ICE joint venture, called the objections 'a very natural response' on a press call Tuesday. 'The model was designed to give companies the right to determine whether they want to opt in or opt out,' said Cuomo, an OKX board member and former New York governor. He said the venture had anticipated that many companies would rather wait and watch how the market develops than be first to participate.

The SEC's five-year Innovation Exemption, rolled out roughly a month ago, lets qualifying venues test trading through automated market makers and liquidity pools, CoinDesk reported. It also gives issuers a say in whether their shares participate. Cuomo described a deliberately limited experiment, pointing to caps on how many companies can take part and on trading volume. 'By definition, it really is a sandbox — a model demonstration,' he said.

Securitize announced earlier this month an offering of 12 tokenized stocks for U.S. investors, with plans to make them available on OKXICE's venue. Microsoft and Alphabet are among those stocks, and their objections to OKXICE do not, by themselves, establish opposition to Securitize's separate offering. Carlos Domingo, Securitize's chief executive, said issuers' questions about pricing, investor protections and shareholder rights are 'entirely reasonable,' adding that companies have different options for participating, 'including issuer-sponsored approaches.'

An objection applies to OKXICE specifically rather than to tokenization in general. A company can refuse the venue and still appear in a tokenized product assembled by an issuer-facing firm — the arrangement Securitize has set out across 12 stocks. The opt-out question is not confined to one venue, either; Perpetuals.com filed this month to run a tokenized U.S. stock venue under the same SEC route, as this publication reported.