OKXICE, a digital-asset venture tied to crypto exchange OKX and Intercontinental Exchange, the operator of the New York Stock Exchange, has told the Securities and Exchange Commission it intends to operate trading in 63 tokenized US equities through permissioned pools on Uniswap v4, deployed on OKX's zkSync-based Layer 2, X Layer.

The disclosure, made in an SEC filing, sets out a structure designed to satisfy traditional securities rules while leaning on DeFi infrastructure. Each underlying share would be mirrored by a tokenized contract accessible only to whitelisted wallets, with settlement handled inside the Uniswap v4 hook rather than off-chain.

What OKXICE is proposing

The filing outlines a market in which equity exposure lives onchain but trading access remains controlled. According to the document, OKXICE will run the venues through a custom Uniswap v4 hook that restricts participation to approved counterparties, a design choice that mirrors the access-controlled pools that have become a recurring theme in regulated tokenization pilots.

The 63 instruments listed in the filing span large-cap technology, financial and consumer names. Cerebras, the AI accelerator company, has already filed an objection to having its shares included in the proposed venue.

Who is behind the venture

OKXICE pairs two divergent corners of market infrastructure. OKX runs one of the largest offshore crypto exchanges by volume and developed X Layer as a general-purpose rollup for retail trading. Intercontinental Exchange owns the NYSE family of exchanges and operates benchmark commodities and derivatives markets. A joint digital-asset vehicle places institutional equity rails and crypto-native liquidity side by side.

The venture previously disclosed plans to build compliant onchain venues for US securities. The new filing represents the first detailed product structure attached to that mandate.

Why Uniswap v4 and X Layer

Uniswap v4's hook architecture permits bespoke logic at the pool level, which OKXICE intends to use as a compliance layer. The hook will screen wallets against a permissioned allowlist, route orders through whitelisted liquidity providers and report fills to a surveillance system.

X Layer, launched by OKX in 2024 and built on zkSync's ZK stack, handles settlement and posts transaction data to Ethereum mainnet. The combination lets OKXICE reuse open-source automated market maker code while keeping the venue walled off from public retail flow.

The Cerebras objection

Cerebras' filing argues that tokenization of its shares, executed without issuer consent, raises disclosure, intellectual property and market-integrity concerns. The objection is one of the first public issuer pushbacks against a planned tokenized-equities venue and signals that Wall Street listing teams will scrutinize copycat listings closely. (Disclaimer: Cerebras has filed an objection; specific legal grounds are still being reviewed publicly.)

The filing does not indicate whether other issuers in the proposed 63-name basket have registered similar positions. The Defiant reached out to OKXICE for clarification on disclosure protocols and was awaiting response at time of publication.

What the SEC weighs next

The proposal arrives as the SEC continues to refine its posture on tokenized securities under Chair Paul Atkins, who has signaled openness to onchain market structures provided traditional safeguards remain intact. A public comment window typically follows the kind of relief filing OKXICE submitted, after which staff may issue questions or request amendments.

Whether OKXICE moves first, or files concurrently with self-regulatory organizations that govern equity trading, will determine whether the venue launches as a regulated alternative trading system or as a private, permissioned marketplace for institutional clients. The outcome will set a precedent for the next wave of broker-dealer tokenization programs.