11-09-2026 
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TL;DR: OKXICE’s plan to tokenize 63 public companies’ shares for 24/7 trading has been met with mass rejection, with 67 companies opting out. Meanwhile, TSV LLC completed the first tokenized trade, in Canton Strategic Holdings, on the Canton Network. In another development, Morgan Stanley announced it tokenized U.S. equities and Treasuries on the DTCC’s new DTS platform.
Key Takeaways:
- OKXICE discreetly doing sniff-checks after tokenized rejections soar, with 67 companies having opted out by November 5.
- TSV LLC became the first to complete a tokenized trade on November 4, trading tokenized shares of Canton Strategic Holdings on the Canton Network.
- Morgan Stanley tokenizes equities and Treasuries the DTCC’s new Tokenization Service (DTS), calling itself “among the first banks” to do so.
America’s tokenized securities experiment is off to a seriously rocky start, but one tokenizer has succeeded in dragging one public company to the tokenization altar.
OKXICE, the joint venture of digital asset exchange OKX and Intercontinental Exchange Holdings (NYSE: ICE), the parent company of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), is having a harder time convincing public companies to let it tokenize their shares than Republicans had convincing voters to let them control Congress for the next two years.
On October 4, OKXICE listed 63 publicly traded companies whose shares it wanted to offer for 24/7 trading under the Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) new tokenized securities venue (TSV) guidelines. At the time of that initial filing, OKXICE indicated that one of these 63 companies had already exercised its SEC-mandated option to reject OXKICE’s tokenization overtures.
Companies looking to opt out of tokenization have 30 days from the time the would-be tokenizer notifies them of its plans. And in the weeks following OKXICE’s initial filing, the number of companies opting out steadily grew, first to nine, then to 16, then 22 as of October 23.
As that 30-day window got closer to closing for good, the pace of rejections accelerated, rising to 28 by October 28 and to 43 by October 30. Incredibly, the October 30 figure was actually 50 companies, but seven of these were companies that weren’t listed on OKXICE’s initial hit list, but who apparently just wanted to deter the would-be tokenizer from using their names to fill its depleted dance card.
By November 2, there were 56 objectors, growing to 59 the next day, to 62 by November 4 and to 67 just one day later. That includes all of the ‘Mag 7’ tech companies. Of the original list, only six companies are still on board with OKXICE’s plans, all of them crypto firms: BitGo (NASDAQ: BTGO), Coinbase (NASDAQ: COIN), Circle (NASDAQ: CRCL), Robinhood Markets (NASDAQ: HOOD), Securitize (NYSE: SECZ) and Strategy (NASDAQ: MSTR).
All in all, not the most auspicious start for the SEC’s bold tokenization initiative. Coupled with Tuesday’s electoral shellacking of the pro-crypto Republican congressional caucus, and there’s a a palpable sense that this deregulatory crazy train might be going off its rails.
Various theories have been put forward as to why the rejections are so widespread, and that the disinterested companies include tech giants that you’d think would be eager to support this tokenization experiment. The most logical explanation is fear of the unknown, as last week’s $6.3 billion hack of the Binance exchange has people questioning the security of anything blockchain-related.
Others have pointed to the fact that the SEC’s plan is limited to U.S. customers, and given that these customers already have easy access to public shares (albeit within a narrower time window and only five days a week), this steak has no real sizzle.
There’s also the question of whether Wall Street is as ‘cool’ with tokenization as it claims to be. There’s still no entity that has stepped forward as the sugar daddy who paid for last month’s full-page ad in the Wall Street Journal warning public companies about the perceived pitfalls of third-party tokenization.
While the ad featured a QR code that led to the NASDAQ exchange, NASDAQ’s parent company denied involvement. Some sleuths have fingered Citadel Securities as the culprit, based on its longtime opposition to crypto platforms horning in on their turf while not being subject to the same rigorous (and expensive) oversight as tradfi trading firms.
TSV makes history
While OKX struggles to get the cool kids to accept its tokenization party invites, another TSV has chosen a more direct path by first identifying a single willing partner and then diving right in.
The aptly named TSV LLC went into the history books on November 4 by trading a tokenized version of Canton Strategic Holdings (NASDAQ: CNTN), a company focused on maximizing the potential of the privacy-focused Canton Network (on whose rails TSV LLC is trading its tokenized CNTN).
CNTN is both an investor in and a ‘super validator’ of the Canton Network and prides itself on being the first public company “to leverage Canton Coin,” the network’s ‘utility token.’
(In a bit of synergistic timing, the SEC issued a ‘no action’ letter the day before the CNTN tokenized trades were made. The letter declared that Canton Coin is a ‘digital commodity’ and thus the SEC doesn’t really care what you do with it.)
TSV LLC signaled its intention to be first out of the tokenization gates last week, with SEC-registered transfer agent Fairmint TA LLC recording the shares in tokenized form, Five North serving as the shareholder/seller, DRW Cumberland acting as the buyer, and Flowdesk Liqudity Solutions as the liquidity provider. The trades were executed via a permissioned pool on automated market maker protocol Tradecraft and settled atomically on the Canton Network.
There’s no word on what other companies might decide to join CNTN in TSV’s brave new tokenized world, but the Canton Network’s backers include a host of mainstream finance names, including Visa (NASDAQ: V), BNY Mellon (NYSE: BNY) and Goldman Sachs, along with crypto bigwigs like USDC stablecoin-issuer Circle (NASDAQ: CRCL).
Morgan Stanley first (or not) out of the DTCC starting blocks
Another first was struck on November 3 when investment bankers Morgan Stanley (NASDAQ: MS) announced they’d tokenized U.S. equities and U.S. Treasuries on the DTTC Tokenization Service (DTS). DTS is the new tokenization platform of the Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation (DTCC), America’s leading clearing, settlement and trade reporting financial infrastructure firm.
Morgan Stanley didn’t offer specifics as to what equities it’s tokenized or in what amounts. DTS currently operates on the Canton Network and DTCC’s own private Besu network, but plans are afoot for Stellar and Circle’s Layer-1 network Arc to become DTS options next year.
Morgan Stanley also made a cryptic reference to it being “among the first banks” to tokenize real-world assets, suggesting other banks may have gone down this road but are keeping it on the down-low until they’re sure this experiment doesn’t produce more unexpectedly negative results than the Stanford Prison Experiment.
Last month’s DTS launch announcement cited some 20 institutions as having signed up to at least consider playing on this tokenized playground. DTS said there’d be 34 Russell 1000 securities ‘available to tokenize’ out of the gate, but none of these equities have been publicly outed as participating in the scheme, with DTS indicating only ‘select large-cap names’ to start before ‘expanding across the index.’
FAQs:
What is OKXICE?
OKXICE is a joint venture between crypto exchange OKX and Intercontinental Exchange, the NYSE’s parent company, seeking to offer tokenized shares under the SEC’s new tokenized securities venue (TSV) guidelines.
How many companies rejected OKXICE’s tokenization plan?
By November 5, 67 companies had opted out, leaving six original companies that approved or whose objection wasn’t recorded.
Why are so many companies saying no?
Suggested reasons include fear of the unknown after last week’s $6.3 billion Binance hack, limited appeal since the plan only covers U.S. customers who already have easy access to shares, and possible Wall Street resistance.
What were the other tokenization firsts?
TSV LLC traded a tokenized version of Canton Strategic Holdings (NASDAQ: CNTN) on November 4. On November 3, Morgan Stanley announced it had tokenized U.S. equities and Treasuries on the DTCC Tokenization Service (DTS).
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