Kraken Parent Expands xStocks to International Markets

Kraken's parent company Payward is expanding its xStocks platform to international markets, including Hong Kong, the UK, and South Korea.

This move continues Kraken's strategic path from crypto trading to on-chaining traditional assets, similar to early expansions by platforms like Coinbase from spot to derivatives.

The expansion of xStocks is made possible through Payward's collaboration with GTN, which secures market infrastructure in key locations and mobilizes resources to convert traditional stocks into on-chain versions.

This represents a restructuring of the industry chain, where tokenization reduces cross-border settlement and custody costs, accelerates capital towards blockchain infrastructure, and drives transformation of capital market trading structures from centralized custody to distributed settlement.