Key Takeaways
ICE and OKX are taking tokenized stocks mainstream with 24/7 trading tied to more than 60 U.S.-listed companies.OKXICE will be owned 50-50 by ICE and OKX, with trades moving through Uniswap v4 liquidity pools on Ethereum Layer 2 network, X Layer.Every tokenized stock is expected to have a real share behind it, held 1-to-1 through a FINRA-member broker-dealer.
Tokenized Stocks Move Into the Mainstream
In June 2025, tokenized stocks witnessed a breakout and really gathered traction in 2026. Essentially, a tokenized stock asset is a digital stand-in for a real share, and the technology allows investors to gain access to their shares immediately, trade them 24/7, and even have access to real-time dividends.
Last month, the SEC let certain venues trade those tokens without registering as full exchanges. Crypto firms and the owner of the New York Stock Exchange quickly entered the fray, and on Sunday, ICE and OKX submitted a filing with the securities regulator formally notifying it of their plans. The notice explains that the two companies intend to operate a round-the-clock venue for tokenized U.S. stocks.
Former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, co-chair of the joint venture dubbed OKXICE, said the move was a milestone for the industry. “Our notice includes more than 60 companies listed on U.S. stock exchanges,” Cuomo wrote on X. “This is a landmark step toward a truly global, 24/7 Wall Street—and toward keeping the future of digital finance anchored here in the United States.”
Cuomo added:
“The digital asset revolution is already transforming our financial system. Tokenized securities are part of what comes next. And we’re just getting started.”
Inside the OKXICE Tokenized Securities Venue
The filing leverages the SEC’s Innovation Exemption, and OKXICE LLC, a Texas company, disclosed that it will operate a Tokenized Securities Venue, or TSV for short. The platform will be 50% owned by ICE and the other half controlled by OKC USA Holding Inc, according to the joint proposal.
The TSV will showcase continuous trading running 24 hours a day, seven days a week and it will not host an order book. Instead, trades will settle through Uniswap v4 liquidity pools in a permissioned fashion via OKX’s Ethereum Layer 2 (L2) network known as X Layer. The infrastructure will feature a custom smart-contract “hook” that does a quality control check for every transaction. Tokenized stocks featured on the TSV will trade against stablecoins such as USDT, USDC, and USDG.
The Tokenizer Behind the Shares
Actual ownership is a different tale. For instance, the crypto assets are not issued by ICE, OKX or even OKXICE. An unnamed third party, called only “the Tokenizer,” holds the underlying shares one-for-one through an SEC-registered, FINRA-member broker-dealer. Some people may scrutinize this because the tokenized stock’s entire value proposition rests on a promise that someone, somewhere, actually holds the real share.
Still, this isn’t a fly-by-night operation. OKX has been in the crypto exchange business for years, and ICE is a major, heavily regulated public company. Alongside this, the presence of a FINRA-member broker-dealer in the custody chain adds another regulated party. The fact of the matter is, if tokenized stocks continue to grow this fast and truly deliver 24/7 access and instant dividends, then traditional exchanges should worry.
