Kraken Parent Payward Targets Global Tokenized Equities
Payward and GTN will tokenize international equities, pitching blockchain infrastructure as a cure for fragmented global capital markets.
Payward, the parent company of Kraken, has partnered with fintech GTN to extend its xStocks tokenized equities outside the United States for the first time. The collaboration will initially focus on Hong Kong-listed shares before expanding to the U.K., Europe, and South Korea.
Under the deal, GTN will handle trade execution, custody, and record-keeping across its global network. Payward will apply its existing xStocks framework to tokenize these international shares, creating blockchain tokens backed one-to-one by real shares in regulated custody. The partnership directly targets the structural friction of cross-border trading. "For decades, we've accepted that capital markets should be fragmented by country, currency, and market hours. That's a legacy financial infrastructure problem," said Mark Greenberg, global head of Payward Services.
xStocks launched in June 2025 offering U.S. equities and ETFs exclusively to non-U.S. investors. The product has since grown to over 500 tokenized assets and processed more than $35 billion in transaction volume.
While competitors like Robinhood and Coinbase concentrate on tokenizing U.S. equities, Payward’s agreement with GTN deliberately targets the rest of the world. Robinhood launched its blockchain-based equities product on July 1, and Coinbase is preparing a similar one-to-one backed offering on its Base network. Payward previously tested mass-market distribution by integrating xStocks with Telegram's TON Wallet, but the GTN deal represents a push into institutional channels.
The backend infrastructure integration between the two firms is already live. However, distribution to GTN’s institutional clients will only commence once the required licenses are secured in each target jurisdiction. Ankit Shah, GTN’s Global Head of FinTech, emphasized the operational appeal for institutional players looking to scale globally. "Our infrastructure lets partners like Payward launch quickly across 90+ markets and a full range of instruments, and it includes the sub-accounting technology Kraken needs to offer tokenised products," Shah said.
If regulators approve, the framework could eventually expand beyond equities into entirely different asset classes. This global push runs parallel to Payward's domestic efforts, including a separate tokenized equities gateway developed with Nasdaq that is targeting an early 2027 launch.
