Big companies are saying no to tokenized stocks — and that may be the point

When a new market for tokenized stocks opened, some of the world's largest companies answered no. According to CoinDesk, Microsoft, Alphabet, Goldman Sachs and McDonald's objected in one recent round, followed days later by Wells Fargo, Cisco and others, bringing the disclosed total to 22.

A 30-day clock that rewards caution

The venue at the centre of the dispute is being built by OKX and Intercontinental Exchange, owner of the New York Stock Exchange, under the Securities and Exchange Commission's innovation exemption. Before trading can begin, CoinDesk reports, the venue must notify the issuer and give it 30 days to object. Silence counts as consent.

That tilts the decision toward caution, CoinDesk reports. Law firm Latham & Watkins has warned that the SEC order provides no way to object after the window closes or to withdraw a non-objection once trading has started, so staying quiet is effectively an irreversible choice.

For a team receiving notice about a market structure it may know little about, objecting while it learns more can therefore be the rational move, CoinDesk reports. Vertalo's chief executive told CoinDesk that many companies had no idea a third party had tokenized their stock until the notice arrived — and questions about who holds the underlying shares and how dividends and votes reach token holders follow immediately.

Nasdaq's objection is about structure, not tokenization

Nor is the pattern limited to crypto sceptics. Nasdaq, which publicly supports tokenization and is pursuing its own model, also intends to object to tokenized versions of its own stock trading under the current exemption, according to CoinDesk.

Nasdaq's concern, as reported, is market structure: venues outside the National Market System could fragment liquidity, weaken price discovery and lack safeguards such as real-time best-price display. Its own approach keeps tokenized securities inside the existing exchange framework.

That distinction matters: an objection to this venue is not an objection to tokenization itself. CoinDesk reports that Ava Labs' head of tokenization expects the list to keep growing precisely because opting out costs nothing while silence counts as consent, and she described the exemption as a data-gathering exercise showing that companies want a say in how their shares come onchain.

What issuers still need to hear

Not every company is saying no. Securitize, which specialises in tokenized securities, told CoinDesk it does not plan to object, and custodian BitGo said the same. A separate question hangs over the experiment, CoinDesk reports. A TD Securities executive said the upside for issuers remains difficult to quantify: tokenization could bring overseas demand for United States shares, but the current framework may not generate enough new demand to offset the risks of thin, round-the-clock trading outside the familiar structure.

The SEC may have removed one regulatory barrier. Getting companies comfortable enough to use it, CoinDesk suggests, will take longer — and the objections may force that conversation into the open.

Written by the BidAsk Newsroom. Based on reporting from the sources below.