Andrew Cuomo said a full-page Wall Street Journal ad warning public companies about stock tokenization tells him the industry has stopped debating whether tokenization will happen and started fighting over whose platform gets the business.
“It means game on,” Cuomo, who joined OKX’s board in July and co-chairs the exchange’s joint venture with Intercontinental Exchange (ICE), said on a virtual press call on Thursday, Oct. 29.
He argued that traditional players would not be competing to enter the tokenization market without “major players believing it is the way of the future.”
Get Unchained’s crypto news in your inbox with the free Unchained Daily newsletter.
What the Ad Said
The paid ad ran on page B5 of the Journal’s Oct. 24-25 weekend edition and was shared on X on Oct. 25. Its headline read “YOUR STOCK. THEIR TOKENS. YOUR PROBLEM.” The ad pointed CEOs to their SEC opt-out right and said they “must act within 30 days,” warning that tokens of their shares would otherwise trade on “unregulated venues.”
The ad carries a paid-for line naming the Common Sense Leadership Fund, which CoinDesk reported is a 501(c)(4) group based in Arlington, Virginia.
On the call, Cuomo questioned why a political group would weigh in when no legislation on the issue is moving. He framed it as a competitive move, pointing out that the ad had a QR code that sent readers to a Nasdaq FAQ. He noted that Nasdaq is working on its own tokenization models. “My tokenization platform is better than your tokenization platform,” he said.
In the FAQ, Nasdaq said it intends to opt its own shares out of tokenized securities venues. Nasdaq told CoinDesk it had no connection to the ad.
Industry Reaction
Securitize CEO Carlos Domingo called the ad misleading in an Oct. 26 post on X, saying its concerns do not apply to tokenization “done in the US under SEC regulations” and blaming “offshore synthetics” for the backlash. Securitize then ran a full-page WSJ ad of its own, which Frank Chaparro highlighted on X on Oct. 28 as a defense of regulated tokenization, and the company wrote on X the same day that “everyone has an opinion on tokenized stocks this week.”
Jito Labs’ Rebecca Rettig published a longer response on X on Oct. 29, arguing that the ad’s warnings miss the only form of tokenized stock the SEC exemption allows and that none of its risks “could or would occur under this tokenization model.”
Opt-Outs on a Rolling Basis
OKXICE’s notice dated Oct. 28 listed 38 companies that had objected to having their shares tokenized, up from 33 a day earlier. Thirty-three of them were among the 62 companies it first proposed.
Cuomo said he was not surprised by the opt-outs. Some companies will tell themselves “I don’t want to be the first one in the pool,” he said. He said the list-first design came from the SEC’s innovation exemption, issued Sept. 17, which gives each named company 30 days to object.
“The start period has passed. There’s no end period,” Cuomo said, explaining that each new notice to a company starts a fresh 30-day clock. Cuomo said during the call that other companies have called asking to be added, saying “we are interested in opting in,” but he did not name them, give a number or set a launch date.
Related Listen: Why Domingo Says Wall Street’s Copycat Stock Tokens Break the Rules
The post Andrew Cuomo Says Wall Street Journal Ad Against Tokenized Stocks Means ‘Game On’ appeared first on Unchained.
Powered by WPeMatico
