Payward, the parent company of Kraken, announced Wednesday that it has tokenized more than 200 UK and European Union stocks on its xStocks platform. This expansion brings the total number of tokenized assets on the network past 1,500, including exchange-traded funds and initial public offerings. Each new token is backed 1:1 by underlying shares held by a regulated custodian for as long as the token trades. The service now holds over $1.1 billion in assets and has processed more than $45 billion in cumulative transaction volume across more than 550,000 unique holders. These figures mark a significant jump from the $40 billion in volume and 200,000 holders reported in September.
Infrastructure and Market Access
The first batch covers some of the most actively traded companies listed in the UK and the EU, with more additions planned on a rolling basis. Trading is available on Kraken and through other platforms in the xStocks Alliance, operating on blockchains such as Solana, Ethereum, TON, Ink, and X Layer. However, the tokens remain unavailable to investors in the UK or the United States, despite being offered in more than 110 markets. Payward stated that these latest additions would not change existing rules on who can trade xStocks. Mark Greenberg, Payward’s chief commercial officer, said, "A portfolio should not have borders or trading hours." He added that tokenizing every other international market is the next step for the company.
This launch represents the first delivery under Payward’s partnership with GTN, a brokerage infrastructure firm that handles execution and custody. When the two partnered in July, Payward outlined plans for Hong Kong, the UK, Europe, and South Korea. Hundreds of Hong Kong-listed stocks will follow in the coming weeks, according to the company. The expansion also delivers on part of Payward’s agreement with the London Stock Exchange, announced in September, to tokenize the 100 largest London-listed companies. Subject to regulatory approval, the exchange intends to list xStocks on LSE 24, its planned near-24-hour trading venue, in 2027. Traditional exchanges have shown strong interest in this infrastructure, with Nasdaq agreeing to invest $100 million at a $21 billion valuation in September. Deutsche Borse bought a $200 million stake in April, while Payward agreed to buy derivatives exchange Bitnomial for $550 million and Lithuania’s Saldo Bank as part of a push into the EU. I find the exclusion of UK investors particularly blunt given the focus on London listings, but the global reach remains impressive.
