- Kraken is rolling out tokenised stocks in the EU.
- It comes months after Robinhood rolled out a similar service.
Kraken is upping the ante against Robinhood.
On Wednesday, the US crypto exchange announced the launch of its tokenised stock trading product, xStocks, across the European Union, making it available for millions of eligible clients.
The launch will grant access to representations of more than 60 US-listed stocks and exchange-traded funds.
In the US, the xStocks trading boom has catapulted tokenised stocks to become the fastest-growing subsector of crypto’s $25 billion real-world asset niche.
This summer, tokenised stocks have become the latest crypto battleground. Robinhood, the $105 billion trading platform, rolled out similar services across Europe in June.
But Kraken seems confident in its ability to compete against the fintech heavyweight.
“The future of capital markets won’t be one-size fits all,” Mark Greenberg, Kraken’s global head of consumer, told DL News. “There will be space for walled-garden models, but the real technological breakthrough lies in permissionless, interoperable platforms like xStocks.
“With xStocks, assets aren’t trapped inside a single exchange, wallet or even blockchain. They can move as freely as any crypto asset at any time of day.”
To be eligible, EU users must sign up with Kraken, complete the know-your-customer verification and pass an appropriateness test.
Competition heating up
The initiatives come as competition in the crypto space is heating up.
Crypto-native firms like Kraken are increasingly fighting over market share with fintech firms and Wall Street giants who have been encouraged to tap into digital assets thanks to the pro-crypto tilt of the current US administration.
Kraken is pitching xStocks as a frictionless entry point to US stock markets, bypassing traditional hurdles such as high fees, market-hour restrictions, and settlement delays.
Kraken is also broadening its reach into tokenisation. Its initial rollout placed xStocks on Solana; support for Ethereum and BNB Chain is coming next
The firm says its goal is to make equities as composable as stablecoins in web3 ecosystems.
IPO plans
The EU xStocks rollout also marks Kraken’s latest move to expand its services.
Last week, it launched US-regulated crypto futures trading. In April, Kraken launched commission-free trading for US equities, which also put it on a collision course with Robinhood, which made its fortune with a similar product.
Last week, Kraken acquired Breakout, a proprietary trading platform. It’s the latest acquisition from Kraken, who bought NinjaTrader, a retail futures trading platform, for $1.5 billion in March.
The initiative comes as Kraken builds momentum ahead of a rumoured 2026 public listing. In March, a Kraken spokesperson told Decrypt that a public listing is on the company’s roadmap.
In a separate interview with DL News, co-CEO Arjun Sethi said that there is no timeline for when the company may file for an initial public offering.
Crypto market movers
- Bitcoin is down 0.6% over the past 24 hours to trade at $112,332.
- Ethereum is up 1% over the past 24 hours trading at $4,321.
What we’re reading
- Memecoin ETF era kicks off with Dogecoin fund that’s ‘useless by design’— DL News
- OpenSea Pledges $1 Million to NFT Reserve Ahead of SEA Token Launch — Unchained
- Shares in bitcoin hoarders sink as ‘crypto treasury’ mania sours — Milk Road
- 50bps Fed rate cut in September? — Milk Road
- Bitcoin to $200,000? Tom Lee says Fed will fuel next rally— DL News
Update September 10: This story has been updated to include the eligibility criteria for the users and to include Greenberg’s exclusive comments to DL News.
Lance Datskoluo is DL News’ Europe-based markets correspondent. Got a tip? Email at lance@dlnews.com.
