Payward, the parent company of crypto exchange Kraken, is partnering with fintech firm GTN to bring tokenized stocks from Hong Kong, the UK, Europe and South Korea onto its xStocks platform.
The expansion moves beyond the platform's initial focus on U.S. equities. Payward said the partnership will add Hong Kong-listed stocks first, with U.K., European and South Korean equities to follow once regulatory approvals are secured.
Mark Greenberg, global head of Payward Services, stated that the goal is to bring truly global capital markets onchain. He noted that the biggest asset class that has not been tokenized yet is the rest of the world.
The xStocks platform already supports more than 500 tokenized securities and has processed over $35 billion in trading volume with nearly 200,000 holders. The products remain unavailable to U.S. investors.
GTN will handle execution, custody and recordkeeping for the underlying securities. The move comes amid rising competition in tokenized equities from firms including Robinhood and Coinbase.
