Kraken Parent Expands Beyond US Names With Over 200 UK and EU Stocks

Payward, the parent company of Kraken, rolled out its first tokenized versions of UK and European listed shares on Wednesday, adding more than 200 companies to its xStocks framework. It is the framework’s first batch of UK and European listings, and Payward said more will be added on a rolling basis.

The new tokens are not for sale in Britain. Payward said distribution and eligibility rules did not change with the launch, so UK investors remain excluded, as do US persons. The tokens are aimed at users in the more than 110 markets where xStocks is offered, and they trade on Kraken, on partner platforms in the xStocks Alliance, and inside decentralized finance (DeFi) apps on Solana, Ethereum, TON and other chains.

That audience matches where Bitwise Chief Investment Officer Matt Hougan expects tokenized stocks to catch on first. Speaking about access to US shares, Hougan said on Unchained on Nov. 9 that early demand comes from “people internationally or people who really wanna trade 24/7/365 and are willing to go offshore to do it.” Adoption, he said, is “going to happen from the edges first.”

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Payward said every token corresponds one-for-one to a share of the underlying company: every token issued is matched by a share purchase, and a regulated custodian keeps that share for the token’s whole trading life. GTN, a brokerage and custody infrastructure provider that Payward Services partnered with in July, executes the trades and holds the underlying stocks. Hundreds of Hong Kong listed stocks are due “in the coming weeks,” according to Payward.

“Over 200 UK and European listings onchain today is proof it works,” Mark Greenberg, Payward’s chief commercial officer, said in a statement. “A portfolio should not have borders or trading hours.”

The batch builds on Payward’s September tie-up with the London Stock Exchange (LSE), and Payward said it follows through on a plan to tokenize 100 London-listed stocks. If regulators sign off, the exchange plans to start listing xStocks in 2027 on LSE 24, the round-the-clock trading venue it announced earlier.

xStocks launched in June 2025 with US stocks and exchange-traded funds. Payward now counts more than 1,500 tokenized assets and over $1.1 billion in assets under management. Trading volume since launch has passed $45 billion, and the tokens now have more than 550,000 unique holders. When the GTN deal was announced in July, the company cited more than 500 assets and nearly 200,000 holders.

The tokens are issued by Backed Assets (JE) Limited, a Jersey company, and Payward said they are not registered with any local securities regulator.

Related Listen: How Tokenized Stocks Could Undercut Interactive Brokers’ 77% Profit Margin

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