Kraken has agreed to purchase Backed Finance, the tokenized asset issuer behind its xStocks product. The deal brings the issuer contained in the alternate as tokenized equities achieve traction.
Kraken Deepens xStocks Push With Backed Deal
According to blog post, Kraken didn’t disclose monetary phrases. The transfer comes as Kraken prepares for a deliberate 2026 IPO.
Backed points on chain representations of about 71 property throughout public equities and ETFs. Each token is backed one-for-one by the underlying safety. The agency is the second-largest supplier of tokenized public shares, with about 23% market share, based mostly on RWA.xyz knowledge.
The platform mentioned xStocks has produced greater than $5 billion in cumulative trading volume on its platform. Backed has powered xStocks because the providing launched. The acquisition turns that provider relationship into possession.
The platform has expanded distribution for xStocks over the previous yr. It rolled the service out within the United States earlier this yr. It then added entry in Europe and prolonged assist to Tron, BNB, and Solana.
Backed’s know-how can be used past Kraken. Bybit relied on Backed to add tokenized equities in Nvidia, Strategy, and different corporations to Mantle’s on-chain ecosystem. That attain has made Backed a standard backend for tokenized inventory merchandise.
The deal lands as tokenization shifts from pilot packages to wider use. BlackRock executives Larry Fink and Rob Goldstein not too long ago mentioned tokenization might reshape monetary markets. They in contrast its potential influence to the early web’s impact on data.
Standard Chartered has projected tokenized real-world property might attain $2 trillion by 2028. The financial institution mentioned most exercise might consider Ethereum. Demand for tokenized yield merchandise and collateral that can be utilized on-chain has additionally pushed development by 2025, in accordance to analysts at Oracle protocol RedStone.
Platform Links Tokenization Control to IPO Run-Up
Kraken’s buy offers it nearer management over issuance and upkeep for tokenized equities. It additionally creates a clearer path to hyperlink these property with spot markets and collateral frameworks on the alternate. Backed, based in 2021, will proceed supporting its present tokens throughout the transition.
Kraken has been constructing round tokenization because it scales towards public markets. The firm closed a funding spherical this yr that valued it at about $20 billion. It has additionally confidential draft S-1 for U.S. IPO with SEC, with a goal of 2026.
The alternate has paired product growth with acquisitions. It purchased the Small Exchange to develop U.S. derivatives buying and selling. It additionally introduced a $1.5 billion deal to purchase NinjaTrader, described as the largest crypto TradFi acquisition to date.
