Payward, the parent company of crypto exchange Kraken, is expanding its xStocks platform beyond US equities by introducing tokenized Hong Kong-listed stocks through investment infrastructure provider GTN, CoinDesk reported Wednesday.

Pending regulatory approvals, the company plans to add UK, European and South Korean shares, while also preparing to extend xStocks into other tokenized asset classes.

The move follows increasing momentum in the tokenized equity market, with Robinhood, Coinbase, DTCC, Nasdaq and the NYSE all pushing blockchain-based securities initiatives.

The trend reflects expectations that tokenization can improve capital markets with faster settlement and continuous trading.

xStocks grows into one of the largest tokenized equity platforms

xStocks is Kraken’s tokenized equities ecosystem, built with Backed, that allows users to gain exposure to US stocks and ETFs through blockchain-based tokens fully backed by underlying shares in regulated custody.

The platform offers fractional investing from as little as $1 while supporting 24/7 on-chain transfers and trading through self-hosted wallets.

The framework debuted on Solana with 60 tokenized US stocks and ETFs before scaling to nearly 500 listed securities, more than 100 ecosystem partners, over $35 billion in trading volume and close to 200,000 holders. Payward says that eight of the 15 largest tokenized stocks by market capitalization now use the xStocks framework.

The next phase of development includes adding non-US equities, commodities, pre-IPO investments and institutional execution tools. Payward also plans to introduce collateral support and deeper round-the-clock liquidity as it expands tokenized assets beyond traditional equities.