Nasdaq and Kraken/Payward Launch Tokenized Equities via xStocks

Nasdaq has partnered with Payward (Kraken’s infrastructure arm) to build an equities transformation gateway that will distribute issuer-sponsored tokenized stocks using Kraken’s xStocks framework. Nasdaq’s new equity token design aims to preserve issuer control, existing regulatory frameworks and shareholder rights and is expected to begin operations in H1 2027 in eligible jurisdictions. Payward will act as the primary settlement layer and provide KYC/AML onboarding and compliance via Payward Services, while xStocks supplies a permissionless infrastructure layer to support tokenized shares and commodity tokens (eg, gold, silver, crude). xStocks reports over $25 billion in cumulative transaction volume and more than $4 billion settled on-chain, with 85,000+ unique holders across supported networks. The gateway is intended to enable seamless swaps between institutional trading systems and on‑chain ecosystems, improve capital efficiency by making equity collateral interoperable across venues, and expand global access to public markets. Deployment depends on jurisdictional approvals and existing geo-restrictions for xStocks. For traders: the initiative signals deeper institutional integration of tokenized equities, potential new on‑chain liquidity sources, and evolving regulatory scrutiny — factors that could affect asset flows, custody demand and derivatives tied to tokenized stocks.