Payward, the parent company of crypto exchange Kraken, will tokenize the 100 largest companies listed on the London Stock Exchange as blockchain-backed tokens, pending regulatory approval for trading on the exchange’s planned extended-hours venue.
The tokens, branded “xStocks,” will be 1:1-backed representations of the underlying shares and are expected to be available on Kraken and other supporting xStocks Alliance platforms “in the coming weeks,” the company said in a statement. The offering will be available to investors in more than 110 countries, though not, notably, to investors based in the UK.
The London Stock Exchange plans to list and support trading in the xStocks on “LSE 24,” its recently announced extended-hours venue, subject to regulatory sign-off. LSE 24 is slated to run Monday through Friday from 5 p.m. to 7:50 a.m. local time, with a 30-minute pause for end-of-day processing, per the exchange. The broader offering on the venue will span tokenized equities from the U.S., Europe, the UK, and Hong Kong, alongside other asset classes.
LSE CEO Julia Hoggett framed the partnership as an effort to expand access while preserving market standards. “By working with Payward, and continuing to collaborate across the market infrastructure, we are exploring how issuers and investors can benefit from new forms of access while maintaining the standards that underpin public markets,” Hoggett said in a statement reported by The Block.
The partnership also covers native equity tokens issued through LSE infrastructure, with the same rights and full fungibility as traditional shares. In practice, that would let LSE members trade tokenized versions of major UK equities alongside conventional instruments.
xStocks is not a new framework. It launched in June 2025 and was acquired by Payward in December as part of Kraken’s push into tokenization ahead of its planned IPO, The Block reported. The framework has since processed over $40 billion in total volume across more than 200,000 holders, with nearly $20 billion settled onchain, according to the company.
On a market-share basis, xStocks has tokenized roughly $606.6 million in assets, the second-largest issuer after Ondo, which sits at about $840.4 million, per RWA.xyz data. The total tokenized equities market stands at approximately $2.53 billion.
The London push builds on a recent international expansion. In July, Payward partnered with GTN to scale xStocks into Hong Kong, the UK, Europe, and South Korea across GTN’s network spanning more than 90 markets. Last month, Kraken launched U.S. stock trading alongside xStocks for European Economic Area customers through its Cyprus-regulated entity.
Payward’s top line gives context for the tokenization bet. The firm reported $508 million in adjusted revenue for the second quarter, up 17% year-over-year, on total platform transaction volume of $310 billion, The Block reported.
Several specifics are not yet public. The exact list of 100 London-listed stocks has not been specified, nor has a firm launch date beyond the “coming weeks” framing. The status of FCA involvement, or which regulator must clear the LSE 24 listing, is not detailed in the announcement. And while the tokens will reach investors in 110-plus countries, UK-based investors remain excluded from xStocks for now.
