ICE and OKX announced a joint venture to tokenize NYSE equities, with Andrew Cuomo co-chairing. The deal, pending SEC approval, gives OKX access to ICE's benchmarks and financial markets technology.
Intercontinental Exchange, the company behind the New York Stock Exchange, and crypto exchange OKX said Monday they are forming a joint venture to build tokenized securities and digital asset infrastructure. The deal, which needs regulatory approval, would give OKX's 120 million retail customers access to ICE's benchmarks and financial markets technology.
Andrew Cuomo, the former New York Governor and Attorney General who has advised OKX since 2023, will co-chair the venture alongside an ICE executive. An OKX spokesperson told Fortune the joint venture's initial focus will be tokenizing NYSE-listed equities.
The announcement follows ICE's March strategic investment in OKX at a $25 billion valuation. In May, the two firms launched crypto-native perpetual oil futures for non-U.S. customers, a product that competes with the decentralized exchange Hyperliquid.
The venture enters a crowded field. The SEC delayed its innovation exemption for tokenized stocks in May after stock exchanges raised concerns about third-party synthetic tokens. NYSE and Nasdaq had already won separate SEC approval for tokenized equity trading earlier this year. Coinbase and Robinhood have each announced competing tokenized stock products. Kraken has launched its own.
For ICE, the joint venture is a deeper bet on the convergence of regulated market infrastructure and crypto-native distribution. For OKX, it offers its most credentialed path yet to onboard institutional and retail capital from traditional finance.
The regulatory path is the biggest uncertainty. The SEC's delay shows the agency is still grappling with how to treat tokenized equities. The joint venture will need to address that ambiguity, especially if it plans to offer products to U.S. customers. The OKX spokesperson did not specify which jurisdictions the venture would target first.
Execution risk is also high. Tokenizing equities requires settlement infrastructure plus compliance with securities laws across multiple jurisdictions. ICE brings the NYSE's market structure and decades of regulatory experience. OKX brings a large retail user base and crypto-native technology. Integrating the two systems will take time.
On AlphaScala, ICE carries a Mixed Alpha Score of 36, reflecting the uncertainty around the venture and the broader regulatory environment. A regulatory filing date has not been set.
Prepared with AlphaScala research tooling and grounded in primary market data: live prices, fundamentals, SEC filings, hedge-fund holdings, and insider activity. Each story is checked against AlphaScala publishing rules before release. Educational coverage, not personalized advice.