IBM, Oracle, Intel and IonQ have objected to plans by crypto exchange OKX and Intercontinental Exchange, the parent of the New York Stock Exchange, to offer blockchain-based versions of their shares. Their decisions bring the number of companies blocking the proposed service to 26, according to an updated public notice from the firms’ joint venture, OKXICE.
The objections are an early test for a new U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission framework that allows qualifying trading venues to experiment with blockchain-based stock markets. They also show the difficulty of assembling a tokenized-equity market when public companies remain uncertain about the protections, demand and commercial value involved.
Four more companies opt out
The four companies appeared in OKXICE’s updated notice dated Monday, October 26. They were part of the 62-company group initially identified by the joint venture as potential participants. Other major companies that have objected include Microsoft, Alphabet, Goldman Sachs, Cisco and Wells Fargo.
The latest additions mean that 23 of the 62 companies in the original proposed roster have now objected, representing roughly 37% of that group, based on CoinDesk’s tally. The broader total of 26 also includes Cerebras Systems, Arm Holdings and Wells Fargo, which were not included in the original selection cited by OKXICE.
The companies’ objections do not mean that tokenized stocks cannot be offered in general. Instead, they prevent OKXICE from including these issuers’ shares under the specific plans set out in its notice. The decisions highlight a central challenge for the project: obtaining participation from the companies whose stocks would give the market its depth and variety.
How the proposed market would work
OKXICE published its initial notice on October 4. The joint venture plans to use liquidity pools on Uniswap v4, operating on OKX’s XLayer blockchain. Trades would be settled using stablecoins, digital tokens designed to maintain a stable value relative to a reference asset such as a fiat currency.
Rather than relying on a traditional order book that directly matches buyers with sellers, the proposed venue would use automated market makers. These systems execute transactions through pools of deposited assets. The design would allow trading around the clock, unlike conventional U.S. stock markets, which operate during specified sessions.
The SEC’s five-year “Innovation Exemption” gives eligible venues room to test this type of blockchain-based trading. At the same time, it requires venues to notify the relevant public companies and provide 30 days for them to object before tokenized versions of their shares are made available.
That opt-out mechanism puts issuers in a consequential position. A company can block its inclusion without paying a fee, while failing to object allows the proposed trading to proceed under the framework. Industry experts previously told CoinDesk’s Tokenization Weekly that companies may not have a clear way to reverse that initial non-objection later.
Why issuers are taking a cautious approach
The growing number of objections suggests that many companies are choosing to understand the model before joining it. Legal, compliance and investor-relations teams may still be assessing how tokenized shares would affect shareholder protections, market oversight and the way investors interact with a company’s stock.
The potential commercial upside is also unresolved. Tokenization could create additional demand, including from investors outside the United States. However, the benefits may be weighed against concerns about relatively thin liquidity and continuous trading outside the familiar structure of established stock exchanges. Reid Noch of TD Securities previously told CoinDesk that the possible demand may not compensate for those concerns.
Andrew Cuomo, OKXICE’s co-chairman and a former governor of New York, has described the objections as expected. During a press call last week, he said many companies would prefer to “wait and see how it goes” rather than become early participants.
The decisions by IBM, Oracle, Intel and IonQ therefore matter less as a rejection of blockchain technology as a whole than as a signal about issuer readiness. For OKXICE, the next phase will involve demonstrating that tokenized shares can attract sufficient trading interest while meeting companies’ expectations around investor protection and control over how their stock is offered.
Moneyiar market picture
Moneyiar market data, recorded on October 25, 2026, show mixed but mostly weaker performance among the listed digital assets:
- Telcoin (TEL): $0.0014157918, down 0.97% over 24 hours and 7.28% over seven days.
- Four (FORM): $0.2210079715, up 0.66% over 24 hours and down 7.29% over seven days.
- BAS (BAS): $0.0169243841, down 1.24% over 24 hours and 7.19% over seven days.
- Notcoin (NOT): $0.000370248, down 1.43% over 24 hours and 0.63% over seven days.
These figures are Moneyiar data at the stated time and are separate from the OKXICE issuer-objection process.
