NYSE Owner ICE and Crypto Exchange OKX File for Tokenized Stock Trading

Intercontinental Exchange (ICE), the parent company of the New York Stock Exchange, has partnered with crypto exchange OKX to seek regulatory clearance from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for round-the-clock tokenized equities trading. Announced under the joint venture name OKXICE, the planned blockchain platform intends to offer trading in tokenized versions of over 60 U.S. stocks. The service will enable investors to buy and sell fully backed digital shares using U.S. dollar-pegged stablecoins.\n\nThe trading venue will operate on X Layer, a blockchain linked to OKX, utilizing a recently introduced SEC regulatory exemption designed for regulated on-chain trading systems. Unlike synthetic derivatives, each token will represent underlying ownership of an actual share. "The market never sleeps, so why should trading? Ownership shouldn’t have office hours," said former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, who serves as OKXICE's co-chair, adding that the regulatory filing represents a major step toward modernizing market infrastructure.\n\nThe initiative builds on ICE’s roughly $200 million investment in OKX earlier this year, which valued the crypto exchange at $25 billion. Cuomo initially joined OKX as an adviser in 2023 amid a federal investigation into anti-money-laundering compliance failures. The exchange resolved that probe in February 2025 by pleading guilty and paying approximately $500 million in penalties before relaunching operations across the United States two months later.\n\nThe venture reflects expanding Wall Street adoption of real-world asset tokenization, a sector whose total market value recently eclipsed $35 billion, according to data from Dune. The SEC’s five-year temporary exemption program, unveiled in mid-September, established a pathway for digital assets after federal legislative efforts to create a comprehensive crypto market framework stalled in the U.S. Senate.