OKXICE maps out 24/7 tokenized stock venue on XLayer

OKXICE, the joint venture between crypto exchange OKX and NYSE parent Intercontinental Exchange (ICE), set out plans for a venue trading more than 60 tokenized US stocks around the clock in an Oct. 4 public notice. The on-chain system would give approved retail and institutional investors another way to trade shares, including outside the stock market’s usual hours.

• More than 60 US-listed stocks are named in the notice.
• The venue is designed to operate 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
• Trading pools would run on XLayer and use USDC, USDG or USDT.
• ICE and OKC USA each own 50% of the joint venture.

How would OKXICE’s stock venue work?

Trading would take place through permissioned liquidity pools on XLayer, an OKX-linked blockchain network. The pools use Uniswap v4 technology, and a smart-contract extension checks that a trader’s wallet has OKXICE’s approval before it can trade.

There would be no order book, the notice says. Instead, buyers and sellers trade against assets held in each pool, with prices determined by the ratio between them. Users would connect a self-custody wallet, meaning they control its keys, and pay with one of the supported stablecoins, digital tokens designed to hold a steady value.

The notice lists shares including Nvidia, Apple, Microsoft, Amazon, Tesla, Coinbase, Robinhood, Circle and Reddit. It says tokens may be issued by the stock’s issuer or by an unaffiliated third party. In the latter case, a broker-dealer must hold the underlying shares one-for-one, and each token represents an entitlement to one share.

Does the notice mean the SEC approved the venue?

No. The notice describes a route under a temporary, conditional SEC exemption, but says OKXICE TSV is not registered with the SEC for these activities and the agency has not reviewed the notice’s accuracy or merits. The Block reported that the exemption lasts five years and permits certain venues to trade tokenized US-listed stocks without registering as exchanges.

OKXICE also says its venue is not subject to the fair-access rules for registered exchanges and some alternative trading systems, or to Regulation NMS, the rules governing US stock-market trading. That leaves a different set of protections and obligations from those that apply on traditional exchanges. The notice says access will depend on identity and wallet screening, and that trading remains under SEC oversight.

What is still unsettled for investors?

The notice outlines how the venue is supposed to work, but it does not give a public opening date. It also records one issuer objection: Cerebras Systems. OKXICE says companies will be able to object to having their shares included.

The venue would not itself tokenize the shares or hold users’ assets. The notice says tokenizers and their broker-dealers handle issuing and redeeming the stock tokens, while trades settle on XLayer through smart contracts. It also says the tokens should carry the same rights as the underlying shares, including voting and dividends.

That structure makes the token’s link to the real share central to the proposal. OKXICE says it will check backing and holder rights before listing a token, and stop trading it if those rights are no longer in place. Until the venue opens and the arrangements are tested in practice, investors have a design on paper rather than a live market.

Sources and documents

• Oct. 4 public notice — okx.com
• reported that the exemption lasts five years — theblock.co