ICE and OKX Are Teaming Up to Bring Tokenized Securities to Wall Street

NYSE owner Intercontinental Exchange (ICE) and the firm behind centralized crypto exchange OKX are forming a joint venture to build tokenization and digital asset products, the firms announced on Monday. 

The split venture is subject to regulatory approval, but if completed will offer OKX customers globally access to tokenized equities on the NYSE and exposure to futures contracts offered by ICE. 

“The ICE-OKX joint venture is a step towards building the infrastructure that will define how global markets operate in the decades ahead,” Trabue Bland, senior vice president for futures exchanges at ICE, said in a statement. 

Bland added that the firm hopes to broaden its offerings to the 120 million retail traders using OKX.

The venture will be co-chaired by ICE and former New York Attorney General and Governor Andrew Cuomo, who has been working with OKX since 2023.

“The next chapter of financial markets will be defined by how well innovation and government regulation can move forward together,” said Cuomo in a statement. 

“I am personally excited by the prospect of the societal impact that blockchain technology can lead to: the democratization of finance, bringing basic financial services to underserved populations,” he added. 

Specific details about the types of tokenization or blockchain endeavors the joint venture will pursue were not disclosed. Representatives for neither firm immediately responded to Decrypt’s request for comment, but a spokesperson for OKX told Fortune that it will focus on tokenizing NYSE-listed equities. 

Earlier this year, the pair brought crypto-native perpetual futures for oil to market for non-U.S. residents. 

Its latest announcement piggybacks on ICE’s investment in OKX earlier this year. The NYSE parent grabbed a minority stake in the international crypto exchange at a $25 billion valuation.