Wells Fargo, Intuit and Arm Holdings are among six more companies objecting to the tokenization of their shares, bringing the total to 22. The objections target OKXICE, a venture that wants to offer blockchain-based stocks around the clock.
Six more companies have objected to having their shares tokenized, including Wells Fargo, Intuit and Arm Holdings. The total number of corporate holdouts now stands at 22, up from 16 earlier this week.
A regulatory document obtained by Reuters disclosed the latest objections on Friday. A Wells Fargo spokesperson declined to comment to Reuters, while representatives for Arm and Intuit did not immediately provide responses.
What OKXICE proposes
The dispute centers on OKXICE, a joint venture of crypto exchange OKX and Intercontinental Exchange, the parent company of the New York Stock Exchange. The venture initially proposed tokenizing shares of 63 stocks under a new Securities and Exchange Commission framework introduced in September.
However, the framework gives issuers a safeguard. Companies must receive advance notice before third parties tokenize their shares, and they can block those offerings by formally objecting.
Under the proposed system, tokenized stocks would be backed by actual shares held through a registered broker-dealer. Trading would run through permissioned Uniswap v4 liquidity pools on OKX's X Layer blockchain, using stablecoins for settlement.
Big names already on the list
Earlier objections came from some of corporate America's biggest names. In an Oct. 19 regulatory update, Microsoft, Alphabet, Goldman Sachs, Qualcomm, Caterpillar, McDonald's and Western Digital joined the opposition. An earlier group included Broadcom, Verizon, UnitedHealth Group and CoreWeave.
The objections do not necessarily signal opposition to tokenization as a whole. Companies may instead be concerned about how their shares are represented and traded on platforms they do not control.
Former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who sits on OKX's board and co-chairs the venture, addressed the pushback at an Oct. 20 press conference. He described the SEC approach as an experiment in which some companies would embrace tokenization immediately while others watch. He also questioned why markets should keep conventional hours, telling reporters: "This is a 24-seven world."
Source: Bitcoin News
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