Nasdaq, the world’s second-largest inventory trade by market capitalization, is increasing its push into tokenized equities via a partnership with crypto trade Kraken and its infrastructure affiliate Backed.
The trade said Monday it plans to help fairness tokenization in a approach that preserves issuer management, because it appears to be like to attach conventional market infrastructure with blockchain-based networks.
Nasdaq has partnered with Payward, Kraken’s guardian firm, and its subsidiary Backed, the issuer behind xStocks, to develop an equities transformation gateway.
“Tokenization has the potential to unlock the advantages of an always-on monetary ecosystem — enhancing how traders entry markets, how issuers have interaction with shareholders,” Nasdaq president Tal Cohen mentioned.
The plan builds on Nasdaq’s tokenization proposal filed with US securities regulators in September 2025, in addition to Kraken’s acquisition of the xStocks issuer Backed in December.
Nasdaq connects to tokenized equities by way of the xStocks ecosystem
Nasdaq mentioned the partnership with Kraken goals to allow tokenized equities to maneuver seamlessly between regulated markets and world onchain markets whereas preserving issuer rights, regulatory compliance and value integrity.
“By connecting Nasdaq’s market infrastructure with the xStocks ecosystem, the gateway is designed to create interoperability between monetary techniques and decentralized networks,” the corporate mentioned within the announcement.
The trade mentioned it plans to work with extra issuers, switch brokers, regulators, infrastructure operators and different market individuals because the framework develops. Participation in this system will stay voluntary.
Nasdaq expects this program to be operational and extra companies to be accessible to issuers beginning within the first half of 2027.
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“We imagine that public firms ought to at all times stay on the heart of the fairness market ecosystem. This issuer‑sponsored strategy for tokenized fairness securities is designed to empower public firms and improve world accessibility to US fairness markets,” Nasdaq president Cohen mentioned.
Nasdaq’s tokenization push comes amid growing market competitors. Final week, Intercontinental Exchange invested in crypto exchange OKX to deliver NYSE-listed tokenized shares to the trade within the second quarter of 2026.
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Cointelegraph by Helen Partz Nasdaq Launches Equity Token Design With Kraken cointelegraph.com 2026-03-09 11:39:15
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