Kraken takes a major step: over 200 European stocks to the blockchain
Kraken is adding over 200 European and UK stocks through xStocks. Investors gain access to digital stocks on blockchain platforms worldwide.
Crypto exchange Kraken is significantly expanding its range of digital stocks. Through the xStocks platform, investors can now trade blockchain versions of over 200 British and European stocks. These include well-known companies such as Siemens, SAP and Allianz. The expansion aims to make traditional stock trading more accessible outside of regular trading hours.
Payward, Kraken's parent company, announced on Wednesday, November 11, that xStocks has added over 200 new tokenized stocks. These include all forty companies in the German DAX index, including SAP, Siemens, Allianz and Deutsche Telekom.
The digital shares are available to eligible users of Kraken and affiliated trading platforms. Through 360X, a platform of Deutsche Börse, selected stocks can even be traded 24 hours a day.
On Kraken, different opening hours apply to European users. There, trading is usually possible 24 hours a day on business days. According to Payward, each digital share is fully backed by a real share held by a regulated custodian.
This gives investors exposure to the price performance of the underlying share. However, they do not automatically receive the same rights as ordinary shareholders, such as voting rights.
It is noteworthy that the new tokens are not yet available to investors in the United Kingdom, despite the fact that UK equities are part of the expansion.
As a result of the expansion, xStocks now has more than 1,500 digital investment products. According to Payward, more than $45 billion worth of transactions have been carried out since the launch, and there are over 550,000 unique holders. According to Token Terminal, the combined market value of the xStocks issued is approximately $1.1 billion.
This makes the platform one of the largest providers of tokenized stocks, behind Binance bStocks and Ondo Finance. Payward plans to expand further in the coming weeks with hundreds of stocks from Hong Kong.
Kraken is thus positioning itself for a future in which investors can access stock markets worldwide from a crypto platform, without being dependent on the usual opening hours of traditional stock exchanges.