Kraken parent Payward teams with GTN to widen xStocks beyond U.S. shares

Payward, the company behind crypto exchange Kraken, is preparing to take xStocks beyond U.S. equities through a new partnership with global fintech firm GTN. For everyday investors watching tokenized assets, the move matters because it would bring more overseas stock markets into a crypto-style trading format, while still relying on real shares held by regulated custodians.

Payward and GTN said Wednesday that the expansion will begin with Hong Kong-listed equities, then add stocks from the U.K., Europe and South Korea. The rollout to institutional clients depends on regulatory approvals in each market, according to the companies’ release.

xStocks are tokenized stocks, meaning blockchain-based tokens designed to represent traditional securities. Kraken says each xStock is backed one-to-one by the relevant underlying stock or exchange-traded fund held in regulated custody. The product currently covers U.S. equities and ETFs, but Kraken’s support page says xStocks are available only to investors outside the United States and are not offered to U.S. residents.

What GTN brings to the deal

Under the agreement, GTN will provide the regulated market plumbing for the assets behind the tokens. That includes trade execution, custody and record-keeping, according to the release. Payward will use its xStocks framework to turn eligible international equities into blockchain-based tokens.

Ankit Shah, GTN’s global head of fintech, said in the statement that financial institutions want access to new asset classes and markets without having to rebuild their own systems. Shah said GTN’s infrastructure supports more than 90 markets and includes the sub-accounting technology Kraken needs for tokenized products.

The companies said the arrangement could eventually cover assets beyond stocks, if regulators in the relevant jurisdictions allow it. For now, the near-term plan is to broaden xStocks from its U.S.-only catalog into major non-U.S. equity markets.

Why tokenized stocks are drawing attention

Tokenized equities try to make traditional shares work more like crypto assets: they can be issued and transferred on blockchain networks, while the economic exposure is tied to conventional securities. The basic idea is familiar to crypto users, but the legal and operational setup is closer to brokerage infrastructure because real-world shares still need custody, trade execution and compliance controls.

Payward Services global head Mark Greenberg framed the partnership as a response to the way stock markets remain split by country, currency and trading hours. In the company statement, Greenberg said capital markets have long been fragmented by those barriers and called that a legacy infrastructure problem.

According to the release, xStocks launched in June 2025 with U.S. stocks and ETFs and have since grown to more than 500 tokenized assets. The companies said the product has processed more than $35 billion in transaction volume.

A crowded race

Payward is not the only major crypto-linked company moving toward tokenized equities. Robinhood launched a tokenized equities product through its own blockchain on July 1, according to Decrypt. Coinbase is preparing a one-to-one-backed tokenized offering through its Base network, Decrypt reported.

Payward has also worked on other distribution paths for xStocks. In March, Payward and Nasdaq announced a tokenized equities gateway targeted for early 2027, according to Decrypt. xStocks also expanded to Telegram’s TON Wallet, a move aimed at testing broader consumer distribution.

The GTN partnership is live at the infrastructure level, according to the companies. The next step is market-by-market approval before GTN can distribute the product to institutional clients.

This story draws on original reporting from Decrypt.