Oct 29, 2026, 9:39 a.m. EDT
2 min read
Summary
- Walmart, Eli Lilly and three other firms joined objections to OKX and Intercontinental Exchange’s tokenized stock trading plans, bringing disclosed objections to 38.
- Under the Securities and Exchange Commission’s five-year exemption, companies have 30 days to object to unaffiliated third-party tokenization, while silence permits trading without a mechanism to withdraw consent later.
- The objections reflect issuer caution about the new market structure, with companies still weighing the potential demand for their shares against concerns about how tokenized trading would work.
Walmart (WMT), Eli Lilly (LLY) and three additional corporations opted out of the tokenized equity trading initiatives organized by digital asset exchange OKX and NYSE owner Intercontinental Exchange (ICE), pushing total pushback past 50 percent of the enterprises on the project’s initial list.
Carnival (CCL), Arcos Dorados (ARCO), along with Cigna (CI), also surfaced inside a revised public announcement dated Oct. 28 supplied by the OKXICE enterprise. Those additions elevate reported resistance to 38 out of the preliminary 62, according to a CoinDesk tally.
This expanding roster underscores corporate issuers’ hesitation regarding an emerging market architecture taking shape underneath the SEC’s innovation exemption. While this regulatory setup grants platforms space to trial blockchain-centered share trading, businesses continue evaluating how those platforms would function and what benefits exist for them.
Arcos Dorados and Cigna fell outside the starting lineup of proposed listings, mirroring earlier objectors Cerebras Systems, Arm Holdings, and Wells Fargo.
Issuers take a cautious approach
OKXICE published its initial public bulletin on Oct. 4, detailing proposals for twenty-four-hour equities trading.
The SEC’s five-year waiver program permits approved venues to handle tokenized American equities utilizing automated market makers—software applications executing transactions through asset liquidity pools. When an independent third party tokenizes a corporation’s stock, platforms must notify the issuer and grant them a 30-day window to contest.
As CoinDesk’s Tokenization Weekly explored, those guidelines foster prudence: registering an objection incurs no cost, whereas remaining quiet permits dealing to commence without any option to rescind that approval afterward.
JPMorgan Chase, whose opposition featured in Tuesday’s bulletin, stated its choice did not rule out future engagement.
“We are encouraged by the potential of tokenization but also need to be thoughtful about how our shares are represented and traded,” a spokesperson informed CoinDesk. “We’ve decided not to participate in this venue at this stage but will continue to evaluate opportunities as the market develops.”
In the meantime, Canton Strategic Holdings (CNTN) announced Thursday that its shares could initiate trading on the Canton-centered marketplace TSV LLC as soon as Monday, with Fairmint acting as transfer agent. That configuration employs issuer-sponsored tokenization, bypassing the 30-day corporate dispute procedure required for unaffiliated third-party tokenization arrangements.
Originally published at https://www.coindesk.com/business/2026/10/29/walmart-eli-lilly-join-growing-pushback-against-okx-ice-tokenized-stock-plans.
