Kraken’s tokenized equities platform xStocks has introduced xChange, an onchain trading engine that enables trading of tokenized stocks on the Ethereum and Solana networks. The system supports more than 70 tokenized equities that are backed 1:1 by underlying shares held in custody, with prices intended to track their corresponding public-market stocks.
xChange adds dedicated trading infrastructure to the tokenized real-world asset (RWA) market, which seeks to bring traditional financial instruments like equities onto blockchain-based trading rails.
xStocks debuted in June, offering tokenized versions of publicly traded companies issued by Backed Assets. The products are restricted in several jurisdictions, including the United States and the United Kingdom. Since launch, the platform has recorded about $3.5 billion in onchain transaction volume and roughly $25 billion in total trading volume across exchanges, with approximately $225 million in tokenized assets held across some 80,000 blockchain wallets, according to company data.
The rollout follows another Kraken milestone: its banking arm, Kraken Financial, was granted a limited-purpose master account by the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City, providing direct access to the Fedwire payments network used by banks and credit unions.
Traditional and crypto market operators are also developing infrastructure to support tokenized securities. In December, Coinbase announced plans for Coinbase Tokenize, an institutional platform to issue and manage tokenized real-world assets, including equities. The owner of the New York Stock Exchange, Intercontinental Exchange (ICE), said it is building a platform to support trading of tokenized securities such as stocks and ETFs by combining its matching engine with blockchain settlement. That model could enable round-the-clock trading and near-instant settlement, potentially using stablecoins instead of the current one-day settlement cycle in U.S. equities markets.
The London Stock Exchange Group is developing blockchain-friendly digital settlement infrastructure for tokenized securities, and Nasdaq has proposed changes to integrate tokenized stocks and exchange-traded products into its existing trading systems—moves that could boost liquidity for tokenized offerings if regulators approve.
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