22 companies are blocking OKX and ICE's plan to trade their tokenized stocks

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Six more companies, including Wells Fargo and Intuit, have opted out, joining Microsoft and Alphabet on the list of objectors

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Wells Fargo $WFC, Intuit $INTU and four other companies have objected to having their shares traded as tokens on a venue supported by both the crypto exchange OKX and Intercontinental Exchange (ICE), according to Reuters. The additions bring the total number of objecting companies to 22.

The revised public notice that OKXICE filed Oct. 23 on behalf of the partnership between the two companies names the other four: Cisco $CSCO, Marvell Technology, Moderna $MRNA and Arm Holdings, according to CoinDesk. Wells Fargo and Arm were absent from the list of stocks the venture first planned to trade, while Cisco, Intuit, Marvell and Moderna appeared on it, according to CoinDesk.

The document outlines the venture's rules and lists the objecting companies. It offers no reason for the objections, according to Reuters. Representatives of Wells Fargo and Intuit would not comment, and Arm had yet to respond, Reuters said.

Sixteen of the 22 objectors, among them Microsoft $MSFT and Alphabet $GOOGL, trade on Nasdaq $NDAQ, according to Reuters. The remaining companies trade on the New York Stock Exchange, a venue owned by ICE.

Earlier this month, OKX and ICE submitted a filing to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission seeking to list tokenized stocks through the agency's new innovation exemption, according to Reuters. The exemption requires platforms to give companies advance notice before offering tokenized versions of their shares, and bars them from going ahead if an issuer objects.

OKXICE put out its first public notice Oct. 4, according to CoinDesk. Venues must allow issuers a 30-day window to raise objections before they can put tokenized stock on offer.

OKXICE Co-Chairman Andrew Cuomo said such responses were expected. “We always anticipated that, because this is such a dramatic and revolutionary change, many companies would want to wait and see how it goes rather than be the first to participate,” Cuomo said during a press call last week, according to CoinDesk.

ICE and OKX announced the formation of the 50-50 joint venture in June to build infrastructure for tokenized financial products. The venture is co-chaired by Cuomo and Trabue Bland, ICE's senior vice president of futures markets. Subject to regulatory approvals, it is expected to operate as a U.S.-registered broker-dealer and futures commission merchant.

Nasdaq, for its part, is partnering with Payward, Kraken's parent company, on a tokenized stock platform of its own that is slated to debut next year, according to Reuters.

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