top of page
4Artboard 3_2x_edited_edited.png

The UK’s home for tokenised equity. Independent news, insight and resources for founders raising capital, investors deploying it, and the firms supporting both — as the regulation, infrastructure and opportunity converge.

Kraken Parent Payward Extends Tokenised Stock Platform to UK, Hong Kong and South Korean Equities

  • Writer: Shawn Jhanji
    Shawn Jhanji
  • Jul 23
  • 2 min read
UK investors have so far only been able to watch tokenised stock trading develop in the US from the sidelines. That is changing. What happened Payward, the parent company of Kraken and developer of the xStocks framework, confirmed on 22 July that it is extending tokenised stock trading beyond the United States, working with investment infrastructure provider GTN to bring Hong Kong listed shares onto the platform first, with UK, European and South Korean equities to follow. The move follows a run of expansion from tokenised equity platforms this year. Robinhood's own blockchain moved from testnet to public mainnet on 1 July, and Coinbase has separately signalled plans to offer tokenised stocks. Tokenised equity perpetual trading volumes across exchanges have grown from around 85 billion dollars in January to roughly 470 billion dollars in June, a rise driven largely by platforms such as Binance, Hyperliquid and OKX offering leveraged, round the clock exposure to instruments that otherwise trade on limited hours through KYC gated brokerages. Why it matters for the UK

UK investors have so far only been able to watch tokenised stock trading develop in the US from the sidelines. That is changing before our eyes, with multiple new product developments in the last seven days.


What happened


Following LSE 24's recent announcement, Payward, the parent company of Kraken and developer of the xStocks framework, confirmed on 22 July that it is extending tokenised stock trading beyond the United States, working with investment infrastructure provider GTN to bring Hong Kong listed shares onto the platform first, with UK, European and South Korean equities to follow.


The move follows a run of expansion from tokenised equity platforms this year.


Robinhood's own blockchain moved from testnet to public mainnet on 1 July, and Coinbase has separately signalled plans to offer tokenised stocks. Tokenised equity perpetual trading volumes across exchanges have grown from around 85 billion dollars in January to roughly 470 billion dollars in June, a rise driven largely by platforms such as Binance, Hyperliquid and OKX offering leveraged, round the clock exposure to instruments that otherwise trade on limited hours through KYC gated brokerages.


Impact for the UK?


Bringing UK listed equities onto a tokenised, round the clock trading venue raises the same questions we've tracked all year around PISCES, custody and market abuse rules, only this time for a retail facing crypto exchange rather than a regulated UK platform. The FCA's cryptoasset regime, with its authorisation gateway opening in September, will determine how much of this activity a UK based platform could legally offer domestically, and how far Payward's international rollout can reach UK residents in the meantime.


For UK founders and investors who have spent early part of the year watching PISCES and the Digital Securities Sandbox develop as the sanctioned route to tokenised UK equity, a global retail platform moving faster and outside that perimeter is a reminder that regulation and market practice do not always move at the same pace.


What comes next


Payward has not given a firm date for when UK equities will go live on xStocks, but the direction of travel appears clear. As more exchanges chase the same always on, globally accessible model that crypto pioneered, the pressure on London Stock Exchange Group and other UK venues to respond, whether through PISCES, LSE 24 or similar initiatives, will only increase.


Key Takeaways


  • Payward, Kraken's parent, is extending its xStocks tokenised stock platform beyond the US.

  • Hong Kong listed shares arrive first, working with infrastructure provider GTN, with UK, European and South Korean equities to follow.

  • Tokenised equity perpetual trading volume has grown roughly 450 per cent since January, reaching about 470 billion dollars a month in June.

  • The rollout raises fresh questions about how the FCA's incoming cryptoasset regime treats offshore platforms offering UK equities to UK residents.

  • Traditional exchanges face growing competitive pressure to match the round the clock model crypto platforms have already normalised.


Sources:

Comments

bottom of page