US-based crypto exchange Kraken has agreed to acquire Backed Finance AG, the company behind the issuance of xStocks. This acquisition adds to a string of acquisitions the exchange has made this year and brings the tokenized-equities platform under its roof.
Kraken plans to integrate xStocks’ issuance, trading, and settlement more tightly into its products, including its global money app. The exchange also aims to expand 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. According to xStocks, they can be self-custodied and used across multiple networks.
This acquisition follows Kraken's rollout of Backed’s xStocks product to eligible European users in September.
Kraken also operates the xStocks Alliance, a network of partnered chains and trading venues. The company stated that the acquisition will consolidate this network and support broader interoperability and liquidity as more markets add tokenized equities. The specific terms of the deal were not disclosed.
Kraken has been actively pursuing acquisitions this year. In May, the exchange acquired NinjaTrader. This was followed by the acquisition of the proprietary trading platform Breakout in September, and Small Exchange, a designated contract market, in October.
Tokenized Equities Gain Traction Across Major Platforms
The rise of tokenized equities, which are digital tokens representing ownership of traditional stocks on a blockchain, has become a significant crypto trend this year.
In June, xStocks launched on Bybit, Kraken, and several Solana-based DeFi platforms. The offerings included tokenized versions of blue-chip stocks such as Netflix, Meta, Coinbase, Amazon, Nvidia, McDonald’s, Apple, Tesla, and Microsoft.
That same month, the global trading platform Robinhood launched a layer-2 blockchain on Arbitrum and introduced tokenized stock trading for European Union users. The platform debuted with over 200 US stock and ETF tokens, available for trading 24/5 with no commission.
According to data from Dune Analytics, Robinhood has 943 tokenized stocks and ETFs live on Arbitrum, with a total onchain value of approximately $10.8 million.
Separately, RWA.xyz tracks roughly $656 million in regulated tokenized public stocks, with $1.14 billion in monthly transfer volume and approximately 118,000 holders. Among regulated issuers, Ondo holds about 52% of the market, followed by Backed Finance at 24% and Securitize at 20%.
