Kraken has opened its tokenized-equities product, xStocks, to eligible investors across the European Union, letting millions trade on-chain versions of popular U.S. stocks and ETFs directly in the Kraken app. Trading runs 24/5.
xStocks are blockchain-backed certificates created with Swiss fintech Backed that mirror the price of an underlying security. Kraken currently issues xStocks as SPL tokens on Solana for faster, low-cost settlement, with plans to add BEP-20 and Ethereum mainnet support to broaden DeFi integration.
The offering means EU users can buy, hold, and transfer tokenized U.S. equities without a traditional brokerage: tokens can be self-custodied, moved across compatible platforms, and used within decentralized finance protocols as composable assets.
This rollout follows growing investor and institutional interest in tokenized assets. Analysts at BCG and McKinsey project tokenized markets could be worth trillions by the 2030s, and products like xStocks aim to lower geographic and operational barriers to U.S. market exposure.
Important considerations: tokenized stocks are investment products that track real securities, but they come with risks — regulatory uncertainty across jurisdictions, counterparty arrangements behind token issuance, custody and smart-contract vulnerabilities, and traditional market risk. Investors should understand how holdings are backed and what protections apply in their country.
Source: CoinDesk. Read the original coverage for full details.