Payward, the parent company of Kraken, said it is partnering with the London Stock Exchange to tokenize the 100 largest London-listed equities as xStocks. Payward announced the agreement on September 1, 2026, in a post on X.
The products will track the 100 largest companies listed on the London Stock Exchange. Trading is expected to begin in the coming weeks, subject to regulatory and operational readiness, according to Payward.
Payward said the products will bring “24/7, programmable onchain access” to investors in more than 110 countries. xStocks are tokenized versions of publicly listed equities issued on blockchain networks.
The tokens provide economic exposure to their corresponding equities but do not confer direct ownership or shareholder voting rights. According to the xStocks legal overview, they are bearer debt instruments classified as tracker certificates, issued by Backed Assets (JE) Limited and fully collateralized by the corresponding underlying assets.
Payward said its shared infrastructure powers Kraken, NinjaTrader, Breakout, xStocks and CF Benchmarks. Its January 2026 acquisition of Backed brought xStocks issuance, trading and settlement into the same system.
As of July 22, 2026, Payward said xStocks covered more than 500 tokenized equities, exchange-traded funds and initial public offering assets. The company reported more than $37 billion in transaction volume and nearly 200,000 holders worldwide.
The London Stock Exchange agreement follows Payward’s March 2026 partnership with Nasdaq to develop an xStocks-powered gateway between regulated equity markets and permissionless blockchain networks. Nasdaq expected its issuer-sponsored equity-token services to begin operating in the first quarter of 2027.
Robinhood also launched more than 200 U.S. stock and exchange-traded fund tokens for eligible European customers in June 2025. The broker offered 24-hour weekday access and initially issued the tokens on Arbitrum.
