Crypto Today: OKX and ICE Push Tokenized Stocks as El Salvador Gets $138M IMF Boost

Crypto markets are seeing another push toward traditional finance onchain, while governments continue to shape the future of digital assets. Today, OKX and NYSE parent Intercontinental Exchange filed plans for a 24/7 tokenized stock platform, President Donald Trump announced a new Super Intelligence Force led by intelligence chief Jay Clayton, and El Salvador secured another $138 million from the International Monetary Fund despite missing some targets tied to its Bitcoin commitments.

OKX and ICE plan a 24/7 tokenized stock platform

OKX and Intercontinental Exchange, the parent company of the New York Stock Exchange, are moving deeper into tokenized stocks.

Their joint venture, OKXICE LLC, has notified the US Securities and Exchange Commission that it intends to launch a tokenized securities venue under the SEC’s new innovation exemption. The proposed platform would allow investors to trade tokenized versions of US-listed stocks around the clock.

The public notice dated October 4 lists 63 proposed stock symbols. The lineup includes major companies such as Nvidia, Apple, Microsoft and Tesla, alongside crypto-related names including Strategy, Coinbase, Circle and BitGo.

The platform is planned to operate 24 hours a day, seven days a week. It would use permissioned Uniswap v4 liquidity pools deployed on XLayer, with each tokenized stock paired against stablecoins including USDC, USDG or USDT.

The move adds another major player to the growing tokenized-equity market. Rather than limiting stock trading to traditional market hours, blockchain-based versions could allow assets to trade continuously while using onchain infrastructure for settlement and liquidity.

The trend is already gaining traction elsewhere. Robinhood previously deployed 500 tokenized stocks on Arbitrum in a single day, highlighting how quickly traditional equities are moving onto blockchain networks.

Trump creates a new Super Intelligence Force

US President Donald Trump has also announced a new federal initiative focused on artificial intelligence.

Trump named Director of National Intelligence Jay Clayton to lead the new “Super Intelligence Force,” which will coordinate the federal government’s efforts to keep the United States ahead in advanced AI.

The group will also include Federal Trade Commission Chairman Andrew Ferguson, Office of Personnel Management Director Scott Kupor and Emil Michael, the Pentagon’s undersecretary for research and engineering and chief technology officer.

Trump said the force will work across the government and with outside stakeholders, including technology companies, infrastructure providers, consumers and public-interest groups.

The initiative is not directly a crypto policy move, but it matters for the broader digital-asset industry. AI and blockchain are increasingly overlapping through autonomous agents, onchain applications and automated financial systems, making US policy around advanced AI increasingly relevant to the wider technology sector.

El Salvador gets another $138M from the IMF

El Salvador has secured another roughly $138 million from the IMF after the organization completed its second and third reviews under the country's $1.4 billion financing program.

The IMF approved the immediate disbursement despite El Salvador missing certain performance criteria, including one related to Bitcoin accumulation. The organization granted waivers based on corrective measures and renewed commitments from the government.

The latest funding comes with continued pressure to reduce the government's direct involvement in Bitcoin-related activities. The IMF said El Salvador is expected to strengthen crypto-asset regulation, improve transparency around public-sector crypto holdings and continue transferring control of the government’s Chivo Bitcoin wallet to a private operator.

Importantly, the IMF said that no further Bitcoin accumulation is expected beyond documented donations. That puts a clearer limit on the government's role in expanding its Bitcoin holdings while allowing the wider financing program to continue.

The development follows earlier IMF conditions that pushed El Salvador to reduce public-sector Bitcoin purchases. The country's Bitcoin strategy therefore remains active but increasingly separated from direct government-funded accumulation.

What matters for crypto

The three developments point to different parts of the crypto market moving in very different directions.

OKX and ICE are pushing tokenization closer to mainstream financial markets, with a proposed platform that could bring dozens of US stocks onto 24/7 blockchain-based trading rails. At the same time, the US government is building a more coordinated approach to advanced AI, while El Salvador's experience shows how difficult it can be for governments to maintain an aggressive Bitcoin strategy while relying on traditional financial institutions.

For crypto, the bigger theme is becoming clearer: blockchain is increasingly being used to reshape existing financial infrastructure, even as regulators and governments continue to define how much direct control they should have over digital assets.