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GTN, the fintech company, and Payward, developer of the xStocks tokenised equities framework and parent company of Kraken, have partnered to enhance and accelerate the global expansion of the xStocks offering.
The partnership unlocks a pathway for xStocks to significantly scale the range of equities it tokenises, beginning with equities listed in Hong Kong, before expanding to tokenise UK-listed assets, European assets, South Korean assets, and more. The companies say this will deliver international market access that no other tokenised framework currently offers.
The agreement also opens the opportunity to expand xStocks beyond tokenised equities for the first time, broadening the framework to new tokenised asset classes. For individual holders, this means tokenised assets from markets across the world and multiple asset classes could sit side by side in one portfolio, held onchain, tradeable 24/7, and portable across the 100+ exchanges, wallets, and DeFi applications where xStocks already trade.
GTN provides the global execution and custody for the traditional assets underlying xStocks' expansion. Spanning a broad range of asset classes across 90+ markets through a single integration, GTN provides a route to scale xStocks' tokenised offering beyond U.S. equities to equities listed in international markets and, over time, new asset classes, each subject to regulatory approvals.
Under the agreement, GTN provides infrastructure to support the ledgering and record-keeping of tokenised products, helping token issuers account for the underlying assets. Subject to GTN obtaining the required licences in each market, GTN would also make a range of xStocks available to its institutional clients alongside its existing offering. Because GTN reaches a range of asset classes across 90+ markets, the partnership also creates pathways for the xStocks ecosystem to diversify the assets it lists across the exchanges, self-custody wallets, and DeFi protocols where it already trades.
Mark Greenberg, Global Head of Payward Services, Payward said:
"For decades, we've accepted that capital markets should be fragmented by country, currency, and market hours. That's a legacy financial infrastructure problem. The biggest asset class that hasn't been tokenized yet is the rest of the world, and our partnership with GTN is about changing that. One asset at a time, we're bringing truly global capital markets onchain until geography becomes irrelevant to investing."
Ankit Shah, Global Head of FinTech, GTN
Ankit Shah, Global Head of FinTech, GTN commented:
"Financial institutions want to move into new asset classes and markets without rebuilding their technology. Our infrastructure lets partners like Payward launch quickly across 90+ markets and a full range of instruments, and it includes the sub-accounting technology Kraken needs to offer tokenised products. We are delighted that Payward has selected GTN as a global product expansion partner."
xStocks launched a year ago with tokenised U.S. stocks and ETFs, backed 1:1 by the underlying assets. It has since grown to more than 500 tokenised assets spanning equities, ETFs, and IPOs, and now powers over $35 billion in transaction volume across multiple blockchain ecosystems, with nearly 200,000 holders around the world.
The partnership is already live, with tokenised distribution to GTN's institutional clients to follow once the required licences are in place. The two companies say they will share details on enhanced offerings in the coming weeks.
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