Crypto exchange Kraken has launched trading for tokenized equity perpetual futures on its regulated derivatives platforms. This facility allows eligible clients outside the U.S. to trade 24/7.
Moreover, users will be able to gain leveraged exposure to major U.S. stock indexes, gold, and individual companies, including Nvidia, Apple, and Tesla.
According to the announcement made on Tuesday, the contracts are structured as perpetual futures, derivatives that trade without expiry, and are offered to eligible clients outside the United States. Kraken described the products as the first regulated tokenized equity perpetual futures to be listed on a derivatives venue.
The products are built with the xStocks framework, which issues blockchain-based representations of publicly traded stocks and exchange-traded funds. Kraken said the contracts reference tokenized equity benchmarks rather than directly holding the underlying shares.
This transition basically taps into the booming trend of tokenized stocks. These are digital versions of regular shares (like Apple or Tesla) that live on the blockchain, which lets people trade them even when the regular stock market is closed.
By turning these digital shares into perpetual futures, Kraken is giving traders the ability to use leverage (borrowing to trade bigger) and the facility to buy or sell easily at any time of the day or night.
Clearing and execution are handled through Kraken’s derivatives platform, according to the company.
Notably, Kraken agreed to acquire Backed Finance AG, the issuer of xStocks, in December. On Thursday, Kraken said xStocks had surpassed $25 billion in cumulative transaction volume less than eight months after launch.
The move by Kraken reflects a broader drive by major US-founded crypto exchanges to expand beyond digital assets and offer exposure to traditional financial markets.
In May, Kraken completed its roughly $1.5 billion acquisition of futures platform NinjaTrader, a registered Futures Commission Merchant with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, thereby expanding its access to traditional derivatives markets.
Four months later, the company expanded into tokenized equities in Europe in September when it launched Backed’s xStocks, blockchain-based versions of publicly traded shares, for eligible investors in the region.
Kraken is not the only exchange expanding into tokenized equities. In June, Gemini, the American crypto exchange founded by the Winklevoss brothers, launched a tokenized version of Strategy shares for users in the European Union.
The following month, it expanded its tokenized equities lineup to include US-listed companies, including BlackRock, Visa, American Express, Sony, Broadcom, Prologis, and Caterpillar.
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