Kraken and Backed Expand Tokenized Equities Offering to BNB Chain

Kraken and Backed have expanded the availability of their tokenized U.S. equities offering by partnering with blockchain ecosystem BNB Chain.

This offering, xStocks, provides users outside the U.S. with onchain access to tokenized U.S. equities, the companies said in a Wednesday (July 9) press release.

With BNB Chain joining the xStocks Alliance, the companies will allow xStocks to be deposited and withdrawn from their platform by eligible clients via the BNB Chain in the coming weeks, according to the release.

Backed will give users seamless access to tokenized representations of U.S.-listed stocks and exchange-traded funds (ETFs) by deploying xStocks on BNB Chain as BEP-20 tokens, the release said.

“Expanding to BNB Chain reinforces our core belief that tokenized equities are not just digital wrappers for traditional assets — they are a foundational upgrade to the financial system itself,” Kraken Co-CEO Arjun Sethi said in the release. “These instruments behave as programmable settlement primitives, unlocking atomic settlement, real-time global transferability and composability with onchain lending, derivatives and structured products.”

Backed Co-founder Adam Levi said in the release that the expansion to BNB Chain will help make xStocks “the standard for tokenized equities.”

“Our goal is to bring traditional finance onto blockchain rails — not just by improving access, but by enabling true composability,” Levi said. “Integrated into DeFi, tokenized equities will surpass the scale and utility of stablecoins.”

Backed announced its collaboration with Kraken in a May 22 press release, saying xStocks on Kraken will serve retail and institutional investors.

“Kraken and Solana will join us as we lead the charge, powering access, liquidity and enabling DeFi integrations, but our mission doesn’t stop there: xStocks should be available on any chain, and on every exchange,” Backed said in the release.

Kraken began rolling out xStocks on its crypto platform in June, saying this offering is meant to give eligible non-U.S. clients the ability to invest in American stocks and ETFs.

The company began listing 60 different tokenized assets in its app in June and said it plans to expand the number of available assets over time. It also aimed to roll out xStocks support to more than 185 different countries.