Kraken brings 7,000 U.S. stocks to EEA platform alongside tokenized shares
The exchange says eligible European customers can trade traditional and tokenized versions of some U.S. equities in one regulated account, but the products carry different legal and custody arrangements.
By The Third AnglePublished 3 min read
Illustrative market screens for Kraken's European stock-trading launch; the image does not depict Kraken's platform. Photo: Unsplash · Unsplash License
Kraken has launched trading in more than 7,000 U.S.-listed stocks for eligible customers in the European Economic Area, putting traditional shares and tokenized versions of some of the same companies inside one crypto-native platform. The exchange announced the rollout on Aug. 18 under its European MiFID II authorization.
The move pushes a crypto exchange further into the territory of a multi-asset broker. Kraken's parent, Payward, said the service is live on Kraken Pro and the Kraken mobile app for eligible EEA customers, with access to more than 600 crypto assets and more than 700 xStocks alongside the U.S. equities.
Two formats, one platform
Kraken is presenting the launch as a choice between traditional and tokenized exposure to the same underlying companies. Its announcement says xStocks are backed one-to-one by underlying shares, can be transferred to self-custody wallets and can trade outside the hours of public stock markets, while ordinary U.S. shares remain subject to the rules and infrastructure of traditional securities trading.
That makes the products adjacent rather than interchangeable. The exchange's disclosures identify different entities and regulatory arrangements for the services: Payward Europe Digital Solutions provides the investment service under a MiFID authorization, while xStocks are issued by Backed Assets and offered through a Bermuda-licensed Payward entity. Kraken also says xStocks are not registered with local securities regulators.
The adoption question
The launch gives Kraken a broader distribution surface, but the company's announcement does not disclose customer balances, trading volume or the share of activity that will come from tokenized instruments. It also does not show whether European customers prefer the traditional listing, the onchain format or a combination of both.
Those figures will matter as exchanges compete to become the primary interface for crypto, equities and other markets. For now, the verifiable change is narrower: Kraken has added regulated access to U.S. stocks in the EEA and placed that service beside its tokenized-equity product in a single account.
