A venue for trading more than 60 U.S.-listed stocks, including Apple, Nvidia and Tesla, with stablecoins, even on weekends, has been filed for. OKXICE, a 50:50 joint venture between Intercontinental Exchange (ICE), the parent of the New York Stock Exchange, and crypto exchange OKX, notified the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on Oct. 4, according to foreign media reports.
But something is odd. Korean investors already trade U.S. stocks almost around the clock on weekdays. When Korean brokerages reopened daytime trading in November 2025, they said customers could trade about 23 hours a day (varying by brokerage) by combining the daytime, pre-market (before the regular session), regular and after-hours (after the regular session) sessions.
The real story is not the hours. What this venue changes is the weekend, plus the money used to buy stocks and where they are kept. It is designed so that crypto investors, who trade on weekends too, can buy and sell U.S. stocks with the stablecoins they hold.
- What did OKXICE file for?
It filed to run a tokenized securities venue (TSV). A tokenized stock turns ownership of one share into a digital token on a blockchain (a public ledger anyone can check). According to Ledger Insights, the list covers more than 60 stocks, including Apple, Nvidia, Tesla, JPMorgan and Goldman Sachs. A Bloomberg report cited by other outlets described them as '63 NYSE-listed' companies.
You pay in stablecoins (coins pegged at $1 each), not dollars. Each stock is paired with one of USDC, USDG or USDT and trades in Uniswap pools set up on XLayer, OKX's blockchain. A pool is an automated market (AMM): money and tokens are deposited in advance, and prices are set automatically by how much of each is in the pool.
It will not open right away. After a 30-day objection period following the notice, trading could start in early November at the earliest if requirements are met. In the meantime, AI chip company Cerebras filed an objection and took its stock off the list.
- Why is this kind of venue possible now?
Because on Sept. 17 the SEC introduced an 'innovation exemption.' Venues that meet its conditions can trade tokenized stocks without registering as a stock exchange. But it is a temporary, conditional exemption usable for only five years, and large stocks carry limits of 75 symbols per venue and a 0.25% cap on daily volume.
There are more conditions. The venue operator must be a U.S. entity and give public notice 30 days before starting. It must notify the company that issued the original stock (the issuer) in writing and give it a chance to object. Tokenized stocks must give the same dividends and voting rights (the right to vote at shareholder meetings) as the original shares, and must stop trading whenever the original exchange halts.
ICE took part in OKX's investment round in March. That round valued OKX at $25 billion (about KRW 34 trillion at the Oct. 2 rate of 1,358.4 won per dollar).
- How is this different from 23-hour weekday trading?
The first difference is the weekend. Today, if big news breaks after the market closes on Friday, investors must wait until the next trading day. This venue is designed to be open 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
It is like withdrawing cash from an ATM on a weekend when bank branches are closed. The difference is how the price is set. An ATM hands back your deposit at face value, while on this venue the price depends on how much money and how many tokens are in the pool at that hour.
The second is settlement and custody. OKXICE built instant settlement and self-custody (holding shares directly in the investor's wallet instead of a brokerage account) into its design. But every wallet needs an approval token issued by OKXICE (a soulbound token, a digital token that cannot be transferred to anyone else), and OKXICE also has the power to pause trading.
- How much can trade on this venue?
How much can trade is capped. For large stocks (Tier 1: constituents of large-cap U.S. indexes such as the S&P 500 and Russell 1000, among others), a venue can handle only up to 75 symbols. To use the exemption, daily volume is also capped at 0.25% of the original stock's average daily volume over the previous month.
For a stock that trades 100 million shares a day on average, that means up to 250,000 shares a day on this venue (a BITPRESS hypothetical calculation). In BITPRESS's view, on days when orders pile up, trades may be hard to fill or prices may jump sharply. Put simply, it is a small side door next to the main New York market.
According to the Korea Securities Depository, Korean investors held $197.48 billion (about KRW 268.3 trillion at the Oct. 2 rate) in U.S. stocks as of Sept. 1-21. But public reports do not say whether retail investors outside the U.S. can use this venue.
- Where does money move through this venue?
To buy stocks here, you need stablecoins first. So stablecoins could widen their role from cash parked before buying crypto to money for buying stocks. The total stablecoin supply was about $270 billion (about KRW 366.8 trillion at the Oct. 2 rate), according to a report on Oct. 4.
ICE could gain a channel linking crypto investors' money to U.S. stocks, and OKX a channel for handling tokenized stocks inside the U.S. According to financial news site FinanceFeeds, the tokenized U.S. stock product OKX launched outside the U.S. this year does not accept U.S. persons.
FinanceFeeds also reported that the New York Stock Exchange has separately been developing its own 24/7 venue for tokenized securities. Markets Media reported that Nasdaq and the London Stock Exchange are also preparing for around-the-clock trading.
- Why did Korean daytime trading stop for more than a year?
Korean investors have been through an accident. In August 2024, Blue Ocean, a U.S. alternative trading system (a private venue outside the regular exchanges) that took U.S. stock orders during Korean daytime hours, canceled trades in bulk. Korean brokerages' daytime trading stayed shut for more than a year before reopening on the condition that several venues be used.
On this venue, the other side of your order is not a person but a pool (an automated market, AMM) holding money and tokens deposited in advance. So at times when little money is in the pool, such as weekends, it may be hard to buy at the price you want.
- BITPRESS Insight
What this venue changes is less the trading hours than the kind of money used to buy stocks. Until now, U.S. stocks were bought with dollars and kept in a brokerage account. On OKXICE, you buy with stablecoins and keep the shares in your own wallet, approved by the operator.
So the first to find it easy to use are crypto investors who already hold stablecoins. Stablecoin issuers (the companies that create and hand out stablecoins) also gain one more place where their coins are used. Nothing changes right away for Korean retail investors in U.S. and other overseas stocks. Weekday trading is already open almost all day, and public reports do not say whether retail investors outside the U.S. can use this venue.
There is one test. What matters is not whether a venue is open 24 hours, but how many people are buying and selling at that hour. The cap for large stocks is 0.25% of average daily volume over the previous month.
Sources
https://www.ledgerinsights.com/ice-okx-venture-plans-trading-of-tokenized-us-stocks-via-uniswap-pools/
https://financefeeds.com/okx-and-nyse-parent-ice-file-to-launch-tokenized-stock-platform-in-the-us/
https://www.marketsmedia.com/okxice-files-to-launch-tokenized-securities-venue/
https://en.bloomingbit.io/feed/news/121584
https://www.skadden.com/insights/publications/2026/09/sec-innovation-exemption-establishes
https://www.coindesk.com/policy/2026/09/17/sec-rolls-out-long-awaited-innovation-exemption-for-tokenized-securities-venues
https://www.fntimes.com/html/view.php?ud=20251104132113265179ad43907_18
https://biz.newdaily.co.kr/site/data/html/2026/09/25/2026092500012.html
https://finance.yahoo.com/markets/crypto/articles/bitcoin-enters-october-4-problems-151855980.html
https://kbthink.com/investment/fx/daily/261002.html
Glossary
Tokenized stock — Ownership of one share turned into a digital token on a blockchain, so it can be held in a wallet and sent like a coin.
Stablecoin — A coin designed to hold a value of $1 each; examples include USDC, USDT and USDG.
USDG — One of the stablecoins designed to hold a value of $1 each, like USDC and USDT.
Automated market (AMM) — A market that does not match orders between people; it trades automatically, setting prices by how much money and how many tokens were deposited in advance. On this venue, Uniswap pools play that role.
TSV (tokenized securities venue) — Short for Tokenized Securities Venue: a venue that trades tokenized stocks under the SEC's innovation exemption.
BITPRESS articles are information to help your investment decisions, not a recommendation to buy or sell any stock or coin. Investment decisions and their results are your own responsibility.
