US-based crypto exchange Kraken has agreed to acquire Backed Finance AG, the company behind the issuance of xStocks, adding to a string of acquisitions the exchange has made this year while bringing the tokenized-equities platform under its roof.
According to Tuesday’s announcement, Kraken plans to integrate xStocks’ issuance, trading and settlement more tightly into its products, including its global money app, while expanding support to additional blockchains and markets.
XStocks is a platform that issues tokenized versions of publicly traded equities, such as stocks and exchange-traded funds (ETFs). It currently offers over 60 tokenized products and has recorded more than $10 billion in combined exchange and onchain volume since launching earlier this year.
The tokenized assets are live on the Solana and Ethereum blockchains, with trading available 24/7 onchain. They can be self-custodied and used across multiple networks, according to xStocks.
The acquisition comes after Kraken rolled out Backed’s xStocks product to eligible European users in September.
Kraken also operates the xStocks Alliance, a network of partnered chains and trading venues. Kraken said the acquisition will consolidate that network and support broader interoperability and liquidity as more markets add tokenized equities. The companies did not disclose the terms of the deal.
Kraken, which submitted a confidential US IPO filing in November, has been active on the acquisition front this year. In May, it acquired NinjaTrader, followed by the proprietary trading platform Breakout in September, and Small Exchange, a designated contract market, in October.
Related: Grayscale submits confidential IPO filing with SEC
Tokenized equities gain traction across major platforms
The rise of tokenized equities, digital tokens that represent ownership of traditional stocks on a blockchain, has become one of the year’s most prominent crypto trends.
In June, xStocks launched on Bybit, Kraken and several Solana-based DeFi platforms. The lineup consisted of tokenized versions of blue-chip stocks, including Netflix, Meta, Coinbase, Amazon, Nvidia, McDonald’s, Apple, Tesla and Microsoft.
That same month, global trading platform Robinhood launched a layer-2 blockchain on Arbitrum and rolled out tokenized stock trading for European Union users. The platform debuted with more than 200 US stock and ETF tokens, tradeable 24/5 with no commission.
According to Dune Analytics data, Robinhood has 943 tokenized stocks and ETFs live on Arbitrum, with a total onchain value of about $10.8 million.
RWA.xyz separately tracks roughly $656 million in regulated tokenized public stocks, with $1.14 billion in monthly transfer volume and about 118,000 holders. Among regulated issuers, Ondo holds about 52% of the market, followed by Backed Finance at 24% and Securitize at 20%.
Magazine: When privacy and AML laws conflict: Crypto projects’ impossible choice
