Kraken is one of the world’s largest crypto exchanges.
Tiffany Hagler-Geard | Bloomberg via Getty Images
Kraken, a crypto exchange that has spent years in court battling charges brought by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission over its digital asset offerings, is preparing to offer tokenized securities, including shares of Apple, Tesla, and Nvidia, to customers outside the U.S, according to a release Thursday.
The exchange is partnering with Backed—a firm specializing in blockchain-based financial assets — to offer more than 50 U.S. stocks and ETFs as tokens on the Solana blockchain, the release said.
The product, called xStocks, will be available only to users outside the United States and will trade 24/7, much like bitcoin, allowing around-the-clock access to traditional equities in a crypto-native format, the release said.
Kraken did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Kaken already has a traditional stock trading platform for its US customers that offers more than 11,000 stocks and ETFs via the conventional brokerage model.
The exchange, which launched in the U.S. before Coinbase, remains a private company.
The SEC under President Donald Trump has rolled back virtually all crypto-related lawsuits, including the charges of wrongdoing it brought against Kraken.
Binance made a short-lived attempt at tokenizing equities in 2021 before pulling the plug after regulators pushed back.
But with U.S. lawmakers and the Trump administration now warming to crypto infrastructure — and firms like Robinhood and BlackRock openly exploring asset tokenization — Kraken is taking its shot.
