Kraken acquires Backed to expand global xStocks adoption

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Yaroslav Dmytrenko

02.12.2025

Kraken acquires Backed to expand global xStocks adoption — Kraken and Backed accelerate growth of tokenized equities

U.S. crypto exchange Kraken has announced the acquisition of Swiss company Backed Finance AG, which operates the leading xStocks tokenization platform. The deal is expected to accelerate the global adoption of xStocks by unifying issuance, trading, and settlement processes to build infrastructure for open capital markets.

Kraken and Backed said the alliance will help them create a thriving partner ecosystem across blockchain platforms, trading venues, and consumer applications. The companies stated they will jointly accelerate the expansion of xStocks, bringing tokenized equities to new markets and embedding them deeper into everyday financial use.

Since its debut in early 2025, xStocks has achieved exceptional performance, surpassing $10 billion in combined exchange and on-chain trading volume in just six months.

The deal with Kraken, which recently raised $800 million in preparation for an IPO, gives Backed access to the capital and resources needed to scale faster and benefit from rapid adoption and rising institutional demand for tokenized stocks.

“Thanks to Kraken’s scale, we can accelerate the expansion of infrastructure designed to democratize access to financial services worldwide,” said Adam Levi, co-founder of Backed Finance.

Rethinking the future of financial markets

Currently, xStocks provides access to more than 60 tokenized stocks and ETFs, each backed 1:1 by the underlying asset. The tokens trade on Solana and Ethereum, with planned integrations for TON, Tron, Mantle, and BNB Chain coming soon.

Investors can trade 24/5 on Kraken or directly on-chain, creating a seamless and continuous bridge between traditional and crypto markets.

xStocks can be self-custodied and are designed for multichain interoperability, ensuring an open infrastructure usable across the entire ecosystem.

“The integration of Backed into Kraken strengthens the core architecture required for open and programmable capital markets. Unifying issuance, trading and settlement on a single platform ensures transparency, reliability, and global accessibility for tokenized assets,” said Arjun Sethi, co-CEO of Kraken.

He added that the companies are doing “foundational work for the next era of market structure,” redefining what it means to own assets in the digital age.

At present, xStocks products are not yet available to U.S. investors. Once Backed’s team and infrastructure become part of Kraken, the exchange plans to more deeply integrate xStocks into its broader product suite, including Krak, its global financial app, enabling clients to hold and spend tokenized stocks.

As we wrote, Why Kraken prepares for an IPO: History, rumors, and timing

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