Nasdaq, the second largest stock exchange in the world by market capitalization, is leading its capital development in partnership with the American cryptocurrency exchange Kraken.
The company announced Monday that Nasdaq plans to support tokenization of the stock in a way that preserves issuer control.
Nasdaq has partnered with Payward, Kraken’s parent company, and its subsidiary Backed, the issuer behind xStocks, to develop a stock conversion gateway.
“Tokenization has the potential to unlock the benefits of an always-on financial ecosystem – improving investor access to markets and issuers’ communication with shareholders,” said Nasdaq President Tal Cohen.
The plan is based on Nasdaq’s tokenization proposal submitted to US securities regulators in September 2025, as well as Kraken’s acquisition of issuer xStocks in December of this year.
Nasdaq connects to tokenized stocks through the xStocks ecosystem
Nasdaq’s partnership with Kraken aims to enable tokenized shares to move seamlessly between regulated markets and global on-chain markets while maintaining issuer rights, regulatory compliance and price integrity.
“By connecting Nasdaq’s market infrastructure with the xStocks ecosystem, the gateway is designed to create synergies between financial systems and decentralized networks,” the announcement said.
The Exchange plans to continue to engage with additional issuers, transfer agents, regulators, industry infrastructure operators and market participants as the token framework evolves, with voluntary participation.
Nasdaq expects the program to be operational and additional services available to issuers in the first half of 2027.
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“We believe that public companies should always remain at the heart of the stock market ecosystem. This issuer approach to equity securities is designed to empower public companies and increase global access to US equity markets,” said Nasdaq President Cohen.
Nasdaq’s tokenization comes amid increased market competition. Last week, Intercontinental Exchange invested in cryptocurrency exchange OKX to list tokenized NYSE-listed shares in the second quarter of 2026.
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