Key takeaways
- Nine targeted companies objected to tokenized stock trading
- SEC rules require issuer notice and an opportunity to object
- Early pushback highlights market-structure and shareholder concerns
Nine U.S. companies have reportedly objected to a proposed tokenized-stock trading plan, creating the first major corporate resistance to the Securities and Exchange Commission’s new onchain equity framework.
According to the Wall Street Journal, nine of the 63 companies approached for inclusion on OKXICE’s proposed tokenized-securities venue have pushed back, including Verizon, Broadcom and UnitedHealth. The same report said Nasdaq also declined to have its own shares included through that structure, despite its broader interest in tokenized financial infrastructure.
The dispute matters because the SEC’s September Innovation Exemption created a temporary pathway for qualifying venues to trade tokenized National Market System stocks onchain. But the order also requires a venue to notify issuers and give them an opportunity to object before adding a stock tokenized by an unaffiliated third party.
Why Companies Are Pushing Back on Tokenized Stocks
The SEC’s framework was designed to make tokenized equities more legitimate than earlier offshore products. Under the order, qualifying venues must ensure that tokenized NMS stocks provide holders the same rights and privileges as the equivalent traditional shares, while also meeting limits on symbols, trading volume and smart-contract transparency.
That structure is very different from many existing offshore tokenized stocks, which often provide price exposure without full shareholder rights.
For issuers, however, even a more regulated framework can create problems. Companies may worry about fragmented liquidity, weaker price discovery outside traditional exchanges, confusion among shareholders, and legal or operational complications around corporate actions.
That helps explain why a market designed to modernize equity trading is now facing resistance from the very companies whose shares it wants to tokenize.
SEC Opened the Door, but Adoption Was Never Guaranteed
Coinpaper previously reported that more than 60 large-cap U.S. stocks could soon trade 24/7 onchain after OKX and ICE moved to use the SEC exemption. The proposal would allow stocks such as Nvidia, Tesla and Apple to trade through permissioned automated market maker pools rather than only through traditional market-hours infrastructure.
That vision remains alive, but issuer pushback shows that regulatory clearance is only one part of the challenge.
The SEC’s order does not force public companies to embrace tokenization. Instead, it creates a pilot structure under which venues can experiment while the Commission collects market feedback. The agency said tokenized stocks traded on a TSV must preserve equivalent shareholder rights, while issuers receive notice and an opportunity to object.
Coinpaper has already explored how the SEC framework could benefit platforms and infrastructure players such as Coinbase, Robinhood and Circle. But the latest resistance shows that potential winners in infrastructure do not automatically mean enthusiastic cooperation from issuers.
Why Nasdaq’s Position Makes the Story More Interesting
Nasdaq’s reported refusal to include its own shares under the proposed venue is especially notable because the company is not hostile to tokenization in general.
In September, Nasdaq agreed to invest $100 million in Kraken parent Payward, backing a longer-term plan to build tokenized equities and always-on market infrastructure. Kraken has also been expanding xStocks and broader stock access in Europe.
That creates an important distinction: some companies may support tokenized-market development in principle while rejecting specific trading structures they believe could weaken investor protections or market integrity.
