Kraken's parent company Payward has significantly broadened its tokenized equities offering, bringing all 40 companies from Germany's blue-chip DAX index onchain through a partnership with Deutsche Börse and its 360X platform. The expansion pushes total assets under Kraken's xStocks product past $1.1 billion, marking one of the largest single expansions of a tokenized equity product to date.
The new lineup features prominent German companies including software giant SAP, industrial conglomerate Siemens, and insurer Allianz, alongside more than 200 UK and European shares. This represents a clear shift from xStocks' earlier focus on U.S. equities toward a more global product.
Each xStock token is fully backed by an underlying share held in regulated, segregated custody, following a classic 1:1 backed wrapper/tracker certificate model. Holders receive economic exposure and self-custody of the token but do not gain direct ownership rights or traditional shareholder privileges such as voting. Real shares are held with regulated custodians including Alpaca Securities LLC for U.S. stocks (with supplemental insurance coverage from Lloyd's of London up to $175 million), InCore Bank as a secondary custodian, and GTN for newer UK and EU listings.
The tokens remain unavailable to investors in the United Kingdom and the United States, with access limited to eligible users in supported jurisdictions outside those markets. This expansion follows a September agreement between Payward and the London Stock Exchange Group to tokenize the LSE's 100 largest listed companies on the exchange's LSE 24 platform, targeted for 2027 subject to regulatory approvals.
The move underscores rising demand for on-chain access to traditional stocks, offering round-the-clock trading, fractional ownership, and blockchain-based settlement. Tokenized shares appeal to crypto-native investors seeking diversified exposure without leaving the digital asset ecosystem. By adding the full DAX index, Kraken is positioning xStocks as a more concentrated way to track Germany's largest publicly traded companies through a single platform.
