Key Takeaways
Meta and four other tech firms rejected OKXICE stock tokenization, raising total corporate opt-outs to 67.This mass exodus leaves the OKXICE platform constrained, with only crypto-linked companies remaining listed.Firms fear liability for synthetic wrapper failures, while crypto leaders argue tokenization boosts liquidity.
All Major Non-Crypto Companies Object To OKXICE Stock Tokenization
While many analysts expected the stock market to open to tokenization after the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) issued its innovation exemption, the largest companies are rejecting this push.
In a filing published Thursday, OKXICE, a conglomerate comprising the top ten crypto exchange OKX and Intercontinental Exchange, owner of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), revealed that five more companies had objected to having their stocks tokenized and listed on its platform.
The five new companies include Palantir, an AI and software company that provides defense systems to the U.S. government; S&P Global, a financial intelligence firm; KLA, a yield management solution for the semiconductor industry; Supermicro, a provider of high-performance servers and storage solutions; and Meta, the social network and AI giant.
These five new objections add to the total of 67, with companies like Microsoft and Apple also adding to the list, leaving only crypto-linked companies, including Coinbase, Robinhood, Circle, Strategy, Securitize, and BitGo, in the original roster of companies whose shares were being targeted by OKXICE to be tokenized, leaving the platform severely constrained in its proposed operation.
The new platform would allow for 24/7 trading of American stocks using decentralized infrastructure consisting of stablecoins and blockchain instead of the traditional digital platform.
Companies opting out of these platforms have an explanation, with analysis linking them to being blamed if one of these products comes to fail. MEXC CEO Vugar Usi Zade told Bitcoin News that these companies are concerned “about having their name associated with a product they didn’t develop and being blamed if a synthetic wrapper’s price deviates from the underlying asset.”
Brian Armstrong, CEO of Coinbase, one of the companies that has not opted out of tokenization under OKXICE, stressed that he supported this initiative, as it would allow more people to access and own the stock. “Why would I alienate a potential new category of shareholders? It’s just bad business. Meet the customer where they are,” he stressed on social media.
Securitize’s Carlos Domingo. who has been addressing common misunderstandings regarding the tokenization process of these shares under the SEC exemption, agreed with Armstrong. “Anything that drives more investors and liquidity to an stock in a regulated manner should be desirable to any publicly traded company,” he concluded.
