Kraken Tokenizes the DAX 40, but UK Investors Can’t Buy

• Payward has brought hundreds of UK and EU stocks onto its xStocks platform.
• Residents of the UK and the US still cannot buy the new tokens.
• Each token is a share-backed certificate with limited shareholder rights.
• New US rules let companies block tokens of their stock, and dozens already have.

Payward, the parent company of crypto exchange Kraken, added tokenized versions of more than 200 UK- and EU-listed stocks to its xStocks platform on November 11. The batch includes all 40 DAX companies and large London-listed names such as Shell and HSBC, which eligible investors in over 110 markets can now trade onchain around the clock. GTN supplied the brokerage infrastructure, and this is the largest expansion beyond US equities since xStocks launched in June 2025. Residents of the UK and the US are still barred from buying, even the tokens of British companies.

550,000 holders, $1.1 billion in backing

Payward now lists more than 1,500 tokenized stocks, ETFs and pre-IPO products. When it announced its partnership with the London Stock Exchange on September 1, it had about 200,000 holders, and that number has now passed 550,000. Over the same period cumulative volume rose from $40 billion to $45 billion. All of these figures are company-reported and unaudited.

Shell tokens, issued from Jersey

The issuer is Backed Assets (JE) Limited, which Payward took over when it acquired Backed Finance in January. It issues xStocks as tracker certificates, debt-style instruments whose value follows a listed share. GTN, which runs through six regulated entities in more than 90 markets, buys the shares and keeps them with a regulated custodian. Payward used that single setup to add hundreds of European listings within weeks. Holders can send proxy-voting preferences through Broadridge, and dividends are usually reinvested as extra tokens. Kraken’s disclosures say the products are not registered with the SEC and have no FDIC or SIPC protection.

Brexit cut off the Cypriot licence

EU customers buy through Payward Europe Digital Solutions (CY), a Cyprus firm licensed under MiFID II, the EU’s main rulebook for investment services. That licence lets it serve clients anywhere in the bloc, but since Brexit it no longer covers British retail investors, and Payward has not announced a UK route of its own. The London Stock Exchange plans to list xStocks on LSE 24, its almost round-the-clock venue, in 2027 if regulators approve, and neither company has promised that UK retail investors will get access. In Germany, xStocks have traded on Deutsche Börse’s 360X platform since February under the DLT Pilot Regime, an EU framework that lets licensed venues settle securities on blockchains under temporarily relaxed rules.

33 US companies said no

Under the SEC’s innovation exemption, a tokenized securities venue has to notify a company before it lists a third-party token of that company’s stock and must respect any objection. The exemption also leaves out products that give only synthetic exposure, which is where certificates like xStocks fall. OKXICE, the venue run jointly by OKX and NYSE owner Intercontinental Exchange, proposed 63 stocks in October. By October 27, 33 companies had opted out, including JPMorgan, Coca-Cola and AMD.

Companies such as Siemens and LVMH had no window like that. If European boards want to object, they would probably have to go through national regulators or ESMA, the EU’s securities markets authority.

Hong Kong listings due within weeks

Payward says hundreds of Hong Kong stocks will follow soon, but it has not given a date. In September, Nasdaq Ventures agreed to invest $100 million in Payward. The two companies plan to launch Nasdaq Equity Tokens, which are sponsored by the listed company and keep shareholder rights, in the second quarter of 2027 and connect them to xStocks.

The LSE agreement also has a second track. The two sides will explore tokens issued through LSE infrastructure with the listed company’s backing and the same rights as ordinary shares. If that produces a product, UK companies would get a direct say over how their shares trade onchain, which today’s certificates do not give them.