Payward, the parent company behind crypto exchange Kraken, is rolling out its xStocks tokenized equities platform to users in Hong Kong, the United Kingdom, broader Europe, and South Korea. The move dramatically widens the geographic footprint of a product that lets non-US investors trade tokenized versions of American stocks and ETFs around the clock, five days a week.
What xStocks actually is
xStocks wraps US equities and ETFs into tokenized representations on the Solana blockchain. The tokens are issued by Backed Assets (JE) Limited and distributed through various Payward entities operating under licenses in Bermuda and Cyprus. Each token is backed 1:1 by an actual share held in custody. The platform currently supports tokenized versions of popular names like AAPL, TSLA, and SPY, the S&P 500 ETF. Trading runs 24 hours a day, five days a week, which means a retail investor in Hong Kong can trade tokenized Apple shares while actual US markets are closed.
The bigger strategy
On December 2, 2025, Kraken announced the acquisition of Backed Finance, a firm specializing in tokenized asset issuance. That deal was designed to bring the token creation process in-house, giving Payward more control over how xStocks tokens are minted and managed.
