A joint venture from New York Stock Exchange owner Intercontinental Exchange (ICE) and crypto exchange OKX is preparing to launch an unprecedented 24/7 marketplace for tokenized U.S. stocks. This initiative will enable continuous tokenized stock trading of major securities like Apple, Tesla, and Nvidia, even when traditional markets are closed, by leveraging decentralized finance infrastructure and operating as OKXICE.
On October 4, 2026, the 50-50 joint venture formally notified the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) of its intent to operate a Tokenized Securities Venue (TSV). This move positions some of Wall Street’s most established plumbing alongside crypto-native technology to create a parallel market that never sleeps, potentially providing a live price signal for U.S. equities around the clock.
The future of tokenized stock trading
The venture marks one of the most significant collaborations to date between a legacy financial titan and a major cryptocurrency exchange. ICE’s participation lends institutional weight to the experiment, signaling that the core of the financial system is actively exploring blockchain technology for mainstream equity trading.
The partnership has been developing for months, following an equity stake ICE took in OKX in March 2026 and the formal creation of the OKXICE joint venture in June.
High-profile figures are steering the project, including former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, who serves as co-chair of OKXICE. “This is a landmark step toward a truly global, 24/7 Wall Street,” Cuomo stated, emphasizing that the “digital asset revolution is already transforming our financial system.” This sentiment echoes a broader trend of traditional finance giants exploring on-chain assets, with new tokenized portfolios emerging.
OKX founder and CEO Star Xu offered a more direct take on the venture’s ambition, declaring that “Wall Street is moving onchain.” The goal is to make public markets more open and accessible by leveraging the instant settlement and global reach inherent in blockchain technology. The platform will initially support 63 different U.S.
securities, including technology leaders, financial institutions, and consumer brands such as Microsoft, Goldman Sachs, Walmart, and Coca-Cola.
How Uniswap v4 will power the 24/7 trading floor
Instead of a traditional exchange order book, OKXICE will be built on decentralized finance (DeFi) protocols. Specifically, it will use permissioned Uniswap v4 liquidity pools deployed on X Layer, OKX’s own layer-2 blockchain network. This represents a fundamental shift in market structure, replacing the central order matching system with automated market makers (AMMs).
In this model, prices are not determined by bids and asks but by the ratio of assets within a liquidity pool. Each of the 63 tokenized stocks will be paired with stablecoins like USDC, USDT, or USDG.
When news about a company like Tesla breaks on a weekend, investors can trade its tokenized version against a stablecoin, and the price will adjust based on that activity within the pool, independent of any feed from the Nasdaq.
Uniswap founder Hayden Adams noted that the venue will launch as a “Uniswap v4 hook,” which he described as an ideal structure for such a platform. These hooks are smart contract extensions that allow for custom logic, which in this case will be used to enforce strict compliance checks.
Access is not open to everyone; investors must pass identity, anti-money-laundering (AML), and sanctions screening. Upon approval, their digital wallet receives a non-transferable credential, or “soulbound token” (SBT), that grants permission to interact with the trading pools.
The crucial role of after-hours price discovery
The platform’s most significant potential impact is its ability to create continuous price discovery. Currently, if major news is released on a Friday night, the market must wait until Monday morning to react. OKXICE would allow tokenized shares to reprice in real-time, offering a valuable reference point for how investors are processing new information before traditional exchanges open.
However, the effectiveness of this price signal will depend heavily on liquidity. If the trading pools are too shallow, prices could be volatile and may not accurately reflect the broader market sentiment. The SEC itself acknowledged this tension, seeking public comment on how such a venue could affect liquidity and pricing on conventional exchanges.
Arbitrage between the tokenized and traditional shares could close price gaps when both markets are open, but that mechanism vanishes on nights and weekends, leaving potential for divergence.
Navigating the SEC’s experimental framework
This entire operation is made possible by the SEC’s new “Innovation Exemption,” issued on September 17, 2026. This five-year pilot program allows for the trading of tokenized National Market System (NMS) stocks on permissioned AMMs without requiring the platform to register as a full-blown national securities exchange. It’s a regulatory sandbox designed to let innovation proceed under close observation.
The exemption comes with strict guardrails. A single venue can list a maximum of 75 eligible stocks, and OKXICE is starting with 63. More importantly, trading volume for any single stock is capped at just 0.25% of its prior month’s total trading volume.
These limits ensure the experiment remains contained, preventing it from immediately disrupting the massive liquidity of the NYSE or Nasdaq. The ongoing interest in crypto momentum underscores the technology’s growing capability to handle such financial applications.
The tokens themselves are designed to be true digital twins of their underlying shares. A third-party tokenizer, working through a registered broker-dealer, will hold one share of the actual stock in custody for every token issued. Token holders will also receive full economic and governance rights, including cash dividends and the ability to vote on corporate matters.
Hurdles ahead from issuers and market makers
While the regulatory path is provisionally clear, the project is not without obstacles. Under the SEC exemption, companies whose stocks are slated for tokenization must be given 30 days’ notice and have the right to object. This is not a theoretical power; AI firm Cerebras Systems has already filed an objection, meaning its stock cannot be listed on OKXICE under the current framework.
The next month will be a critical test, revealing which of the other 62 proposed companies might also object. The structure also introduces new dynamics for market makers, who would face risks from weekend price movements without the ability to hedge in the underlying cash markets. This venture joins a wider trend of exploring novel financial structures, indicating broad market excitement for innovation.
With OKXICE having filed its notice on October 4, the earliest the platform could go live is early November 2026. The financial world will be watching closely to see if liquidity providers step up to make markets and whether this grand experiment can deliver on its promise of a truly 24/7 Wall Street.
For now, it remains a bold step toward merging the worlds of traditional finance and decentralized technology.