Nasdaq Teams Up With Kraken to Deliver Tokenized Stocks

Kraken will be working with Nasdaq to deliver tokenized stocks.

Payward, the infrastructure platform behind the popular US-based crypto exchange Kraken, has announced that it will be teaming up with Nasdaq. The initiative aims to develop tokenized equities and further bridge traditional capital markets with blockchain-based financial systems.

The move highlights a growing effort within the traditional financial industry to modernize its infrastructure. As CryptoPotato reported earlier last week, it was indeed the crypto industry that led global markets following the US strike on Iran.

xStockz, Kraken’s tokenized equity product, will power a permissionless infrastructure layer designed to support Nasdaq’s issuer-sponsored equity tokens.

Tokenized stocks, as well as commodities such as Gold, Silver, and most recently, crude oil, have been the talk of the town lately, as crypto-powered exchanges allow for 24/7 trading unlike many of the traditional venues.

According to the official release, the initiative will build on the growing adoption of xStocks, which has already surpassed $25 billion in total transaction volume, per reports. In essence, Kraken will be acting as a distribution partner. Commenting on the matter was Arjun Sethi, co-CEO of Payward and Kraken, who said:

Tokenization upgrades market infrastructure at the asset layer by allowing equities to exist as programmable financial instruments that can operate across both regulated capital markets and open blockchain networks. Today most equities sit inside brokerage systems where their utility is laregly limited to directional exposure and, in some cases, broker-specific margin arrangements.

The move signals the increasing institutionalization of the industry, as well as a notable shift towards traditional equities and commodities. Moreover, Kraken seems to be pedal-to-the-metal on the latest shift, becoming the very first company to receive a Fed Master account last week.