M&A: On Tuesday, Kraken announced the acquisition of Backed Finance AG, the Swiss tokenization specialist behind the xStocks standard for tokenized equities. While financial terms were not disclosed, the deal marks Kraken’s fifth acquisition in 2025 and follows its recent $800 million capital raise valuing the exchange at $20 billion.
Why it matters: Although Kraken is among the industry’s longest-standing exchanges, its spot-trading business has sat near 3% market share for years. The firm is now leaning into tokenized assets as a new growth vector, aiming to bridge centralized and onchain markets. By acquiring Backed, Kraken brings key tokenization capabilities in-house and accelerates that push.
Tokenized equities: Launched in June, Backed’s xStocks wraps traditional equities such as Tesla, Amazon, or Apple into 1:1-backed tokens that can be held in self-custody or used across DeFi. Since launch, the standard has generated more than $12 billion in combined exchange and onchain trading volume, attracted 47,000 unique wallets, and issued over $180 million in tokenized value, making Backed the second-largest issuer after Ondo.
“The beauty of wrappers like xStocks is that they can function as bearer assets, similar to stablecoins. It opens the door to an entirely new client base,” Adam Levi, co-founder and CEO of Backed, told Blockstories.
Existing partnership: Kraken is not starting from scratch. Roughly one third of all xStocks issued today already sit on the Kraken exchange, which has acted as a key distribution venue alongside platforms such as Bybit.
Independence: Asked whether Backed will continue to serve other exchanges after the acquisition, Levi said the standard will remain open.
“Backed Finance’s team and infrastructure will become part of Kraken, and will continue to operate with a sole focus on xStocks. By unifying issuance, trading and settlement under one framework, we are ensuring xStocks remains a public good asset class.”
“Scaling tokenized equities requires substantial distribution reach, regulatory capacity and liquidity. Kraken brings all three, including the MiFID framework already used to distribute xStocks in Europe,” he added.
Partnership with Deutsche Boerse: Institutional adoption is now part of that expansion. Yesterday, the exchange announced a partnership with Deutsche Börse Group, Europe’s largest market infrastructure operator. Under the agreement, xStocks will be integrated into 360X, Deutsche Börse’s venue for tokenized real-world assets. It is one of the first instances of a major exchange group adopting a crypto-native tokenization standard.
What’s next: Kraken indicated that xStocks will not remain limited to equities. In its announcement, the company noted that the acquisition “lays the groundwork for future innovation in tokenized assets beyond equities, advancing our leadership in building open, interoperable financial infrastructure.”
Oliver Yates is the CEO and co-founder of Aplo, a French digital-asset prime brokerage. In early September, the firm was acquired by Coincheck, one of Japan’s largest crypto exchanges.
Kraken’s acquisition appears aimed at infrastructure capture at a moment when no tokenization standard has yet emerged as dominant.
The core strategy is clear: turn xStocks into the default rail for all stock trading on the platform. If Kraken can show that millions of users already interact with this format, it becomes far easier to convince DeFi protocols, brokerages, and neobanks to support the standard. User familiarity reduces adoption friction for everyone else.
