Kraken to Buy Backed Finance to Expand Tokenization and RWA Offerings
Kraken will acquire tokenization platform Backed Finance to strengthen its tokenized assets and digital securities infrastructure. Backed Finance offers tooling and issuance services for real-world assets (RWAs), enabling creation, custody and trading of fiat- and asset-backed tokens across more than 60 tokenized equities and ETFs and holding a notable market share in tokenized securities. The deal — part of Kraken’s recent acquisition push to broaden institutional products and custody capabilities — will be folded into Kraken’s xStocks/tokenized equity efforts. Financial terms and a close date were not disclosed. For traders, the acquisition increases the likelihood of additional tokenized asset listings and deeper liquidity for RWA tokens on Kraken, while announcements and launches could trigger near-term volatility. The move also sharpens Kraken’s competition with other U.S. exchanges for institutional flows into tokenization and RWAs.
Bullish
The acquisition is likely bullish for Kraken-listed tokenized assets because it increases the exchange’s capacity to list, custody and market tokenized securities and RWAs. Integrating Backed Finance’s tooling and issuance capabilities into Kraken’s platform should broaden the product pipeline and attract institutional flows, which tends to support liquidity and price discovery for newly listed tokens. In the short term, announcements and product launches can cause volatility as traders reposition and market makers adjust exposure; however, the medium-to-long-term effect should be supportive as deeper custody and issuance infrastructure typically improves market confidence and trading volumes. Because the news concerns platform capabilities and tokenized securities rather than a native cryptocurrency token, the direct price impact is concentrated on tokenized-asset liquidity and demand on Kraken rather than a broader crypto market sell-off. Overall, expected effects: near-term volatility around listings (mixed), medium-to-long-term liquidity and demand improvement (bullish).