Coca-Cola, JPMorgan and Dell Among Latest to Oppose OKXICE Tokenized Stock Push

Coca-Cola, JPMorgan Chase, and Dell Technologies are among the latest companies to formally object to the tokenization of their shares under a proposal from OKXICE, a joint venture between cryptocurrency exchange OKX and Intercontinental Exchange (ICE), the parent company of the New York Stock Exchange.

The three corporate giants appeared alongside Advanced Micro Devices (AMD), Applied Materials, Adobe, and Sandisk in an updated public notice dated Oct. 27. Collectively, the seven firms represent over $3.1 billion in market cap.

The additions bring the total number of objecting issuers to 33, up from 26 in a notice published just one day earlier, with a total market cap of about $17 billion across all objectors disclosed to date.

JPMorgan’s inclusion is particularly notable given the Wall Street banking giant’s extensive involvement in blockchain technology and tokenized financial assets. The bank has developed its own blockchain-based payment systems and expanded its use of tokenized deposits, even as it objects to having its publicly traded shares represented on OKXICE’s platform.

Coca-Cola, one of the world’s most recognizable consumer brands, and computer manufacturer Dell add further diversity to a list of objectors that already spans technology, finance, healthcare, telecommunications, and other industries.

As Bitcoin.com News reported Tuesday, Intel, Oracle, IBM, and quantum computing firm IonQ were the previous additions to the growing list of corporate holdouts. Other major companies that have objected include Microsoft, Google parent Alphabet, Goldman Sachs, Wells Fargo, McDonald’s, Qualcomm, Broadcom, Verizon, UnitedHealth Group, Caterpillar, and Cisco.

The public notice confirms that OKXICE has received formal objections from the companies, but does not specify their individual reasons for opposing the proposal.

The growing pushback centers on OKXICE’s plan to offer blockchain-based representations of publicly traded stocks, enabling investors to trade tokenized equities 24 hours a day, seven days a week, rather than being restricted to conventional stock market hours.

The venture initially proposed tokenizing shares of 63 companies under a temporary exemption introduced by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in September. The regulatory framework allows qualifying tokenized securities venues to operate without meeting certain requirements that apply to traditional stock exchanges, while providing a mechanism for issuers to object to unauthorized third-party tokenization.

Under OKXICE’s proposed system, tokenized shares would be backed one-for-one by actual stocks held through registered broker-dealers. Investors would receive corresponding shareholder rights, including dividends and voting privileges. Trading would take place through permissioned Uniswap v4 liquidity pools on OKX’s X Layer blockchain, with stablecoins used for transactions and settlement.

Former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who serves on OKX’s board and co-chairs the OKXICE venture, previously downplayed the growing corporate resistance during an October 20 press conference attended by Bitcoin.com News.

Cuomo suggested that the SEC’s tokenization framework was an experiment, and that some companies might embrace blockchain-based stock trading immediately while others may want to wait and see how the market and technology evolve.

“There’ll be other companies that say: I want to be the first in the pool,” Cuomo told reporters. He further questioned why U.S. stock trading should be constrained by traditional market hours when financial markets and investors operate globally.

The growing resistance presents a challenge for OKXICE as it seeks to establish a new market for tokenized American equities.

Meanwhile, Nasdaq has also entered the emerging tokenized securities market, investing $100 million in Kraken parent company Payward in September, with plans for a separate tokenized securities venue in 2027. Nasdaq has also warned publicly traded companies about potential risks associated with tokenized trading venues, and indicated that it intends to opt out of the SEC framework for its own shares.

While the objections do not necessarily indicate opposition to tokenization technology more broadly, the growing list highlights the challenge facing third-party platforms seeking to bring publicly traded stocks onto blockchain networks without the direct involvement or approval of their issuers.