Nasdaq and Kraken will let tokenised stocks move between regulated and on-chain marketplaces without giving up the rights of the issuer or breaking any rules.
The second-largest stock exchange in the world in terms of market capitalisation, Nasdaq, is working with the US crypto exchange Kraken to move tokenised equity development forward.
The business said Monday that Nasdaq wants to facilitate stock tokenisation in a way that keeps issuers in charge.
Nasdaq has teamed up with Payward, the parent firm of Kraken, and its subsidiary Backed, which is the issuer of xStocks, to develop an equities transformation gateway.
Tal Cohen, president of Nasdaq, said, “Tokenisation has the potential to unlock the benefits of an always-on financial ecosystem improving how investors access markets and how issuers interact with shareholders.”
The strategy is based on Nasdaq’s proposal to tokenise stocks that were sent to US securities authorities in September 2025 and Kraken’s purchase of the xStocks issuer, Backed, in December.
xStocks ecosystem connects traditional and on-chain markets
Nasdaq and Kraken are working together to make it possible for tokenised stocks to travel easily between regulated marketplaces and global on-chain exchanges. This will protect the rights of issuers, keep prices honest, and make sure that all rules are followed.
The release says, “The gateway is meant to make financial systems and decentralised networks work together by connecting Nasdaq’s market infrastructure with the xStocks ecosystem.”
As the token framework grows, the stock exchange wants to interact with more issuers, transfer agents, regulators, industry infrastructure providers, and market participants. Participation will still be voluntary.
Framework seeks broad industry participation
In the first half of 2027, Nasdaq hopes that this program will be up and running and that issuers will be able to use more services.
“We think that public companies should always be at the heart of the equity market ecosystem.” “This issuer-sponsored approach for tokenised equity securities is meant to give public companies more power and make US equity markets more accessible to people all over the world,” said Nasdaq president Cohen.
Nasdaq is pushing for tokenisation at a time when competition in the industry is growing. Last week, Intercontinental Exchange put money into the crypto exchange OKX so that it may introduce NYSE-listed tokenised stocks to the exchange in the second quarter of 2026.