Kraken & Nasdaq Unveil Tokenized Equity Gateway
Kraken's parent company Payward has partnered with Nasdaq to build an 'equities transformation gateway', a new infrastructure layer that connects regulated tokenized equity markets with permissionless blockchain networks.
The partnership will use Kraken's xStocks product, which has already processed over $25 billion in total transaction volume, to power the permissionless infrastructure behind Nasdaq's planned issuer-sponsored equity token design.
The gateway is intended to allow eligible users to move tokenized equities between regulated and open on-chain ecosystems. Payward will handle KYC and AML onboarding for participants accessing the bridge through Kraken, and will serve as the primary settlement layer for transactions tied to Nasdaq's equity token design in jurisdictions where xStocks are already available.
'Today most equities sit inside brokerage systems where their utility is largely limited to directional exposure and, in some cases, broker-specific margin arrangements,' said Arjun Sethi, co-CEO of Payward and Kraken. 'Tokenized equities could instead operate as collateral within unified trading systems supporting spot markets, cross-margin trading, derivatives, perpetual futures and financing environments.'