Nasdaq Invests $100 Million in Kraken Parent Company to Develop Tokenized Equity Framework
Nasdaq has invested $100 million in Payward, the parent company of cryptocurrency exchange Kraken, to accelerate the development of the tokenized equity framework 'Nasdaq Equity Token (NET)'. The expanded partnership involves three pillars: investment, joint development of NET, and a market surveillance agreement. NET is slated for launch in Q2 2027.
The current state of xStocks, Payward's tokenized equity product, offers 715 securities with fractional purchases starting at $1. The platform has seen significant growth, with cumulative trading volume surging from over $25 billion to over $40 billion since March 2026. However, xStocks carry an important feature: they are issued by a Jersey-based entity with no capital relationship to the listed companies whose shares underlie the tokens.
The design of NET involves listed companies issuing the underlying shares, enabling them to maintain stronger control over tokenized versions of their own shares. This is in contrast to xStocks, which do not involve listed companies directly. The investment will be used to extend NET beyond Nasdaq's platform and make it available on public blockchains.