OKXICE sets Nov. 23 launch for tokenized securities venue under SEC innovation exemption
OKXICE, the joint venture between OKX and NYSE parent Intercontinental Exchange, plans to launch its tokenized securities venue at the end of the month, bringing the Securities and Exchange Commission's "innovation exemption" to life.On Wednesday, OKX and ICE announced it would launch its TSV on Nov. 23 as part of the SEC's five-year innovation exemption that debuted in September to bring capital markets in the U.S. on-chain and not have to register as more traditional exchanges."The future of finance is onchain, and we have an opportunity to build it here in America, with the standards, safeguards and ambition that investors expect,” said former New York Governor and Co-Chair of OKXICE Andrew Cuomo, in a statement.The announcement of the launch comes amid dozens of issuers that say they have objected to tokenized versions of their stock trading on OKXICE. As part of the innovation exemption, issuers can decide that they don't want their stock to trade on certain venues. In the latest filing from Nov. 5, 67 companies had opted out, including Meta Platforms, Inc. The Home Depot, Netflix, Tesla, and Costco.On Wednesday, ICE and OKX said it has confirmed 70 assets so far from issuers including Coinbase, Circle and Robinhood, as well as 59 exchange-traded funds. The OKXICE's TSV is available to customers in the U.S. who have a CeDeFi Wallet and have completed onboarding, the companies said.A few reasons have since been reported for why companies objected to trading on OKXICE. A spokesperson for one of the companies that opted out, Applied Optoelectronics, told the Wall Street Journal the fiber-optic maker objected because it was unsure how tokenization would affect its stock price, liquidity and volatility, and also had concerns about whether investors may be confused about the company's involvement in the offering.Another major exchange, Nasdaq is also working on tokenization and has partnered with crypto exchange Kraken on it. In late September, the exchange posted a Q&A on the SEC's innovation exemption. Nasdaq has taken a different view in that it has pushed back against the SEC's innovation exemption and has said it plans to "opt its own stock out of Tokenized Securities Venues," said Nasdaq Chief Legal and Regulatory Officer John Zecca in an op-ed published by Barron's on Tuesday.Zecca said tokenization can be a positive for share issuers, but said a framework for tokenization should protect the rights attached to the underlying shares, uphold the principle that a tokenized stock remains a stock, and ensure issuers have a meaningful role in shaping how their shares are tokenized."Our greater concern, however, is that the Innovation Exemption allows tokenized securities to trade outside the government-regulated National Market System, which maintains a market data, reporting, and transparency framework that all stock trading must abide by," Zecca said, adding that fragmentation could then occur.