Kraken has introduced tokenized equity perpetual futures, giving non-U.S. clients in more than 110 countries continuous leveraged access to leading U.S. equities, indices, and gold. The new offering is built using the exchange’s xStocks framework and is available on Kraken and Kraken Pro platforms.
Tokenized Access to Equities
The perpetual futures track tokenized versions of major benchmarks and companies, including the S&P 500 (SPYx), Nasdaq 100 (QQQx), gold (GLDx), Apple (AAPLx), Alphabet (GOOGLx), Nvidia (NVDAx), Tesla (TSLAx), Robinhood (HOODx), and others.
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Crypto derivatives venues such as Binance and BitMEX already list equity‑style perpetual futures tied to names like Tesla and major U.S. indices, also giving traders 24/7, leveraged exposure to stock prices using crypto margin.
Notably, Kraken’s latest offering is the combination of 1:1‑backed tokenized equities (xStocks), regulated benchmarks, and a more tightly regulated structure around the underlying tokenized shares, rather than simply mirroring stock prices via cash‑settled crypto derivatives.
Read more: Kraken-Backed xStocks Debut on Deutsche Börse’s 360X
“This is what it looks like when traditional markets are rebuilt for a crypto-native, always-on world, not a moment too soon given the volatility that all markets are exhibiting,” commented Kraken Global Head of Consumer Mark Greenberg.
According to the exchange, each xStock is fully collateralized and backed 1:1 by the underlying asset, allowing them to trade on-chain 24/7, even when traditional exchanges are closed.
The tokenized equity perpetuals allow traders to open or close positions at any time, with leverage of up to 20x. The instruments operate with regulated benchmarks and support a range of trading strategies, including directional, event-driven, and hedging positions.
Expansion Plans
Kraken aims to broaden its xStocks offering in the coming months to include more tokenized equities and ETFs, as well as expand access in additional markets.
xStocks recently reported that it had surpassed $25 billion in cumulative transaction volume, highlighting the accelerating adoption of tokenized equities across both centralized and decentralized platforms.
The exchange said the total captures trading on centralized exchanges, activity on DeFi protocols, and mint and redemption flows for its tokenized products, all achieved in under eight months.
Onchain activity alone contributes more than $3.5 billion of the volume, supported by over 80,000 unique onchain holders participating in the xStocks ecosystem. As of February 17, xStocks accounts for eight of the eleven largest tokenized equities by unique holders and 68% of the top 25 tokenized stocks by holder count.