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Kraken and Bybit Launch Over 60 Tokenized U.S. Stocks via xStocks
Kraken and Bybit, two major cryptocurrency exchanges, have expanded their services to include tokenized U.S. equities through the xStocks platform, developed by Backed Finance. With more than 60 stocks now tradable onchain, the offering includes high-profile names like Apple, Tesla, Microsoft, Meta, Nvidia, and Amazon.
This development brings real-world financial assets into crypto-native environments and enables blockchain-based trading of traditional equities across both centralized and decentralized platforms. Each tokenized stock is backed one-to-one by the underlying shares, creating a bridge between conventional finance and the emerging decentralized finance (DeFi) ecosystem.
24/5 Access to Tokenized Equities
The xStocks initiative allows for near-continuous trading—24 hours a day, five days a week—effectively eliminating the market closures that have traditionally constrained equity trading. Unlike conventional markets, which operate within limited daily sessions, this model extends trading opportunities to accommodate a global, always-online audience.
Both Kraken and Bybit are offering these tokenized shares through their platforms with instant settlement. On Kraken, users can trade stocks through interfaces similar to standard crypto pairings. Bybit, meanwhile, is offering xStocks on both its traditional finance (TradFi) and decentralized "Byreal" platforms.
The underlying goal of both exchanges appears to be clear: reduce barriers to stock market participation by integrating blockchain’s speed, availability, and programmability with regulated financial instruments.
Blockchain Infrastructure and Solana Integration
A major element of this launch is the integration of xStocks into the Solana blockchain’s DeFi ecosystem. Tokenized equities can now be traded, swapped, or deployed into liquidity pools on protocols such as Raydium, Jupiter, and Kamino. This allows users not only to hold tokenized stocks but also to utilize them in onchain financial activities—a development that would be impossible with traditional brokerage accounts.
The stocks are viewable through the Phantom wallet, a widely used interface on Solana, suggesting an effort to make the assets accessible to users already active in DeFi.
This kind of functionality illustrates one of tokenization’s key promises: merging the utility of crypto infrastructure with the economic familiarity of traditional assets. In effect, tokenized stocks are expanding the toolkit available to DeFi users, offering new mechanisms for diversification and yield generation.
Regulated Exposure Without Borders
Each tokenized asset in the xStocks offering is backed by real shares and, according to Backed Finance, issued in compliance with regulatory frameworks such as the European Union’s MiFID II directive. That regulatory alignment is critical for firms operating across jurisdictions and looking to gain broader acceptance for tokenized real-world assets (RWAs).
Bybit’s confirmation that it is evaluating future dividend support underscores a larger trend: the gradual effort to replicate not just stock price exposure but also shareholder rights and benefits in a compliant onchain form.
While regulatory nuances still govern access depending on the user's location, the model offers a more borderless structure than most legacy systems allow. Users outside the United States, particularly those in Europe, can gain equity exposure without relying on traditional intermediaries or facing foreign exchange conversion hurdles.
A Broader Movement Toward Tokenization
The Kraken and Bybit launches come amid a wave of announcements across the fintech and crypto sectors focused on stock tokenization. Just days earlier, Robinhood debuted its own tokenized equity offering in the European Union, issuing shares on Arbitrum and promising eventual migration to its proprietary layer-two blockchain. Gemini, in partnership with Dinari, also recently introduced tokenized shares of MicroStrategy to European investors.
This coordinated push points to an industry-wide belief that the future of financial products lies in programmable, borderless assets that operate around the clock. Stock tokenization is now emerging as a key use case for blockchain networks, especially as technical and regulatory conditions evolve to support it.
Considerations and Cautions
Despite the momentum, challenges remain. While each token is reportedly backed by real equity, questions about custody, investor protections, and legal recourse in the event of disputes still require clarification in most jurisdictions. Moreover, access remains largely restricted to non-U.S. investors due to the current stance of U.S. securities regulators.
Additionally, while onchain trading brings speed and transparency, it also introduces risks such as smart contract vulnerabilities and liquidity fragmentation across platforms. Whether these products will maintain consistent pricing with their underlying equities remains another point to watch.
Conclusion
The launch of over 60 tokenized U.S. stocks by Kraken and Bybit via xStocks is the latest step in the movement to fuse traditional finance with decentralized systems. By making stocks available 24/5, backed by real assets, and accessible on both centralized exchanges and Solana’s DeFi protocols, the initiative illustrates how far the concept of tokenization has progressed from its experimental roots.
While regulatory and technical questions remain, the direction is clear: tokenized financial products are no longer hypothetical. As platforms like Kraken, Bybit, Robinhood, and Gemini explore different implementations, the global market is witnessing the early stages of what could become a new default infrastructure for investing.
