Quick Read
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Nine companies, including Broadcom and Verizon, formally objected to OKX-ICE’s plan to list 63 tokenized versions of their shares on a blockchain.
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An SEC rule established September 17 grants companies 30 days to block tokenized listings after receiving written notice from an exchange.
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Synthetic products offering only price exposure can still trade without company approval, leaving a significant loophole even if objections succeed.
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Finally! You can open a SoFi Crypto account and access 25 plus cryptocurrencies without juggling apps or logins.
Nine companies, including tech giant Broadcom (NASDAQ:AVGO) and telecommunications leader Verizon (NYSE:VZ), have objected to OKX-ICE listing tokenized stocks of their shares, and the objections became public on October 16, 2026. This joint venture between cryptocurrency exchange OKX and Intercontinental Exchange (NYSE:ICE) has sparked a debate in the financial community.
That day, the affected stocks generally followed market trends. Broadcom’s shares dropped 4.5% to $329, while CoreWeave (NASDAQ:CRWV) fell 11.9% to $61 amid an AI stock sell-off that gave the Nasdaq its worst week since June. In contrast, Verizon shares rose 0.9%, while UnitedHealth Group (NYSE:UNH) fell 1.3%. This raises the question: can these companies prevent their stocks from being traded on a blockchain?
OKX-ICE Seeks to List 63 Tokenized Stocks, and Nine Companies Object
On October 4, OKX-ICE applied to list 63 stocks for trading on OKX’s X Layer blockchain. A tokenized stock is essentially a digital representation of a share that tracks the underlying company’s performance. However, the exchange has not yet launched, and no date has been announced.
OKX-ICE revealed the identities of the companies objecting to the listing in a notice on October 15. In addition to Broadcom and Verizon, the objecting companies include CoreWeave, UnitedHealth, Applied Optoelectronics, Cerebras, AppLovin, Applied Digital and Rocket Lab. Interestingly, eight of these nine companies were part of the initial list. Nasdaq, which competes with ICE’s NYSE, has also decided not to tokenize its own shares, adding complexity to the situation.
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So far, Broadcom, Verizon, UnitedHealth and CoreWeave have not released official statements explaining their reasons for objecting.
Each Company Has Its Own Reason to Object
Broadcom has a market cap of $1.57 trillion and a notable 221% increase in revenue from AI chips. For a company of this size, a tokenized stock representing a fraction of its shares is unlikely to impact trading much; therefore, Broadcom’s objection seems to stem from a desire to maintain control over how its stock is represented.
