Kraken launches 7,000 U.S. stocks alongside xStocks in Europe

Crypto exchange Kraken has launched trading in more than 7,000 U.S.-listed stocks for eligible customers across the European Economic Area, placing traditional shares alongside more than 700 tokenized xStocks and over 600 crypto assets in the same account.

The Block reported on Aug. 18 that the service has become available across the EEA after Kraken quietly began introducing stock trading to customers in Germany, the Netherlands and France in recent days.

The rollout takes Kraken’s traditional equities business outside the United States, where the exchange first entered stock trading in 2025, while giving European customers two ways to gain exposure to U.S.-listed companies through the same platform.

Kraken said eligible EEA customers can buy traditional shares or use xStocks, its blockchain-based products tied to listed equities and exchange-traded funds. Both products can be accessed without transferring funds between separate platforms.

“With U.S.-listed stocks and xStocks available side-by-side in a single regulated account, customers can choose how they access the same underlying exposure — whether through traditional shares or tokenized representation — without moving capital or changing platforms,” Mark Greenberg, chief commercial officer of Kraken parent Payward and head of Payward Services, said in a statement.

Kraken U.S. stock trading reaches eligible EEA customers

Access covers more than 7,000 traditional U.S. stocks through the desktop and mobile versions of Kraken Pro as well as the main Kraken mobile app.

Kraken said stock trades will carry no trading commission, subject to its applicable terms. Eligibility will not be automatic for every existing customer, however, as users must accept additional terms and conditions before the equities feature becomes available.

The service is being provided by Payward Europe Digital Solutions (CY) Limited, a Cyprus investment firm authorised under the European Union’s Markets in Financial Instruments Directive II, or MiFID II.

Alongside the conventional securities offering, customers can access more than 700 xStocks and over 600 crypto assets through their Kraken accounts. The company said xStocks have processed more than $38 billion in total transaction volume since launching in June 2025.

Kraken describes the setup as distinct from European platforms that provide only one form of U.S. equity exposure. Bitpanda offers traditional U.S. stock trading, while platforms including Robinhood and Crypto.com have introduced tokenized U.S. equity products for European users.

Crypto.com, for example, recently launched tokenized stock derivatives tracking about 1,500 U.S. stocks and ETFs for eligible EEA customers and users in other approved markets. Its products provide synthetic price exposure and do not give buyers legal or beneficial ownership of the underlying securities.

xStocks have moved into more parts of Kraken’s trading system

Kraken has continued adding functions to xStocks since the products were introduced in June 2025, taking them beyond instruments used solely to track the price of conventional equities.

In July, crypto.news reported on Kraken allowing eligible users to post selected xStocks as collateral for futures and margin positions on Kraken Pro. Ten assets initially qualified, including tokenized versions of Apple, Nvidia, Tesla, Strategy, Robinhood, the SPDR S&P 500 ETF and the Invesco QQQ ETF.

Futures collateral was made available to qualifying clients outside the United States, including customers in the EEA. Margin collateral was offered outside the U.S. but excluded EEA clients.

Kraken had also developed dedicated onchain infrastructure for the product earlier in 2026. Its xStocks platform introduced xChange in March, an execution layer initially supporting more than 70 tokenized equities across Ethereum and Solana.

At that point, xStocks had generated about $25 billion in total trading volume, including $3.5 billion in onchain transactions, while more than 80,000 onchain holders had interacted with the products. Each token was described as fully collateralised and backed 1:1 by its corresponding underlying security.

Kraken’s current figures put total xStocks transaction volume above $38 billion, showing how quickly activity has increased since the March tally.

Payward is taking xStocks into more international markets

Payward has also been preparing to add equities from markets outside the United States to the xStocks system.

A July partnership with GTN set out plans to begin with Hong Kong-listed shares before adding securities from the United Kingdom, Europe, South Korea and other markets, subject to the necessary licences and regulatory approvals.

Under the agreement, GTN is providing execution, custody, ledgering and record-keeping infrastructure across more than 90 financial markets, while Payward continues to supply the tokenization infrastructure used to create the blockchain-based assets.

At the time of the July announcement, xStocks supported more than 500 tokenized assets and had generated over $37 billion in transaction volume. Payward also said GTN could eventually distribute xStocks to institutional customers once the required approvals are secured in individual markets.

The latest EEA rollout concerns conventional U.S.-listed securities alongside existing xStocks, while Kraken said it plans to take the combined traditional-stock and tokenized-equity service into additional markets over the coming months.

Tokenized equities have taken a larger share of RWA activity

The expansion comes as tokenized equities have become a larger part of the real-world asset market.

According to figures cited by The Block, tokenized equities now account for about 15% of the RWA market, around three times their share at the start of 2026. The segment has reached roughly $2.8 billion in total market capitalisation, with Ondo Finance, Binance’s bStocks and Kraken’s xStocks accounting for a combined 77%.

Kraken has also expanded what holders can do with the securities represented through xStocks. Earlier in August, the platform extended shareholder voting rights to more than 125,000 xStocks holders, allowing eligible investors to instruct the underlying custodian on how votes should be cast at company shareholder meetings.

The feature changed the original structure of xStocks, which did not provide voting rights when the products launched in June 2025. The arrangement relies on the custody structure operated by Backed Assets (JE) Limited, according to the report.

Kraken parent Payward, meanwhile, reported $508 million in adjusted revenue for the second quarter, up 17% from the same period a year earlier. Adjusted EBITDA reached $23 million for the three months ended June 30.

Total platform transaction volume fell 13% year over year to $310 billion during the quarter, while Payward reported that the composition of trading activity moved toward equities and tokenized equities.