coindesk.com
The parent company of crypto exchange Kraken is expanding its tokenized stock offering beyond U.S. companies, betting investors want onchain access to equities from around the world.
Payward, the developer of the xStocks framework, told CoinDesk it is working with investment infrastructure provider GTN to bring Hong Kong-listed stocks to the platform, with U.K., European and South Korean equities expected to follow, subject to regulatory approvals.
The partnership also lays the groundwork for expanding xStocks beyond equities into other tokenized asset classes, the firm added.
"The biggest asset class that hasn't been tokenized yet is the rest of the world," Mark Greenberg, global head of Payward Services, said in a statement. "One asset at a time, we're bringing truly global capital markets onchain until geography becomes irrelevant to investing."
Taking tokenized stocks beyond the U.S.
The move comes as competition in tokenized equities intensifies, with crypto firms and Wall Street institutions racing to bring stock trading onchain.
Earlier this month, Robinhood (HOOD) expanded its tokenized stock offering beyond European users, and Coinbase (COIN) is also planning to offer stock tokens. The Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation (DTCC), the backbone of the U.S. securities markets, has begun testing tokenized securities infrastructure, while Nasdaq and the New York Stock Exchange have also started tokenization initiatives.
The push points to growing conviction that tokenization — the process of representing traditional assets as blockchain-based tokens — could upgrade capital markets with faster settlement, round-the-clock trading and more efficient movement of assets. Citi estimated that tokenized securities could grow into a $5.5 trillion market by 2030, including $2.6 trillion in tokenized equities.
Until now, tokenized equity platforms have largely focused on replicating U.S. markets onchain, offering blockchain-based versions of popular stocks such as Nvidia (NVDA), Apple (AAPL) and Tesla (TSLA). Expanding xStocks to overseas markets gives investors access to a broader universe of companies, including high-flying Asian firms tied to the AI supply chain, which have become popular among global retail traders.
The GTN partnership marks the next stage of xStocks, which started last year with tokenized U.S. stocks and exchange-traded funds. The platform now supports more than 500 tokenized securities, has processed more than $35 billion in trading volume and has nearly 200,000 holders, according to Payward. The products remain unavailable to U.S. investors.