Kraken to Launch Tokenized Stock Products xStocks for Global Markets
On Thursday, the U.S. cryptocurrency exchange Kraken announced that it will soon offer tokenized stock products, known as xStocks, to specific non-U.S. markets worldwide, allowing users to gain exposure to a variety of popular U.S. listed stocks and ETFs, and enabling around-the-clock trading.
According to the announcement, xStocks are tokenized securities launched by the tokenized asset issuance company Backed, issued in the form of SPL tokens on the Solana blockchain. In addition to being traded on Kraken’s platform, these assets can also be traded on-chain through supported blockchain wallets (such as Metamask and Phantom), applied within the decentralized finance (DeFi) ecosystem, and used as collateral.
Backed stated that users holding xStocks can lend tokenized Apple stock on DeFi protocols to earn yields or use it as collateral for borrowing, thereby obtaining funds without selling the stocks.
Mark Greenberg, Kraken’s Head of Global Consumer Business, said:
According to a report by The Wall Street Journal, Kraken’s tokenized U.S. stock trading service will launch in the coming weeks, expected to offer tokenized versions of over 50 stocks and ETFs, and will be available to customers in Europe, Latin America, Africa, and Asia.
In April of this year, the exchange announced the launch of stock trading services in certain regions of the U.S., allowing users to trade over 11,000 U.S. stocks and ETFs listed on the New York Stock Exchange, Nasdaq, and the American Stock Exchange.