On November 11, 2026, Payward said it had deployed more than 200 UK and European Union equities as xStocks, taking the tokenized-asset catalog past 1,500 instruments. The tokens are available through Kraken and supporting xStocks Alliance platforms, but investor eligibility has not changed: xStocks remain unavailable to investors in the United Kingdom.
The launch uses the existing tokenization framework to add exposure to companies listed in those markets. Payward says the assets enter the DeFi ecosystems where xStocks already trade, including Solana, Ethereum, The Open Network, Ink and X Layer. The release gives no new token contract addresses or chain-by-chain deployment list. The deployment claims come from the operator and have not been independently verified through contract readings.
What is live, and where
A companion announcement covering Germany says every constituent of the DAX 40 has been tokenized. SAP, Siemens, Allianz and Deutsche Telekom are among the companies it names as available from launch. The German assets fall within the broader UK and EU expansion and are already included in the headline catalog total.
The DAX release names 360X, a Deutsche Börse Group company, as a venue where the tokenized equities are immediately available, alongside Xetra-Gold as an xStock. Trading hours depend on the venue. Payward describes trading around the clock on select venues, while its disclosure specifies that xStocks on Kraken in the European Economic Area trade 24/5. Weekend availability across the framework is not a promise of weekend trading for every account or platform.
Payward Services’ partner GTN handles global execution and custody of the traditional assets behind the tokens. The expansion release says each issuance is matched by a purchase of the underlying share. That share stays with a regulated custodian while the token trades. The stated backing is 1:1, with the tokens representing custodial claims on off-chain assets even as they move through a public blockchain.
Backed Assets (JE) Limited, a Jersey company, is the issuer. The release names Bermuda-licensed Payward Digital Solutions as a provider to eligible Kraken customers. In the EEA, it identifies Payward Europe Digital Solutions (CY) as the investment-services provider, authorised by the Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission. The underlying company’s listing market is separate from the jurisdiction through which a customer accesses its token.
What a token holder receives
Kraken’s xStocks risk disclosure states that holders receive economic exposure to the underlying stock without owning it. Holders have no voting rights, distribution entitlements or legal claims to the underlying shares or residual assets when the underlying company liquidates. A buyer of a German or British company’s tokenized equity stays outside that company’s shareholder register.
Kraken says dividends are automatically reinvested into more of the same token instead of being paid to the holder in cash. The product documentation describes rebasing for dividends, stock splits and reverse splits, with no action required from holders. Integrations that track token balances must account for those corporate-action adjustments as well as ordinary transfers between wallets.
The documentation describes fractional holdings and self-custody. Kraken’s disclosure also confirms that customers can withdraw xStocks to a compatible on-chain wallet. A withdrawal puts the token under the wallet owner’s control, while the underlying shares stay in the custodial structure. The issuer and the institutions holding the collateral remain in place after the token leaves the platform.
The product documentation describes a bankruptcy-remote issuing special-purpose vehicle and collateralization for each asset, without commingling between products. Custody accounts are segregated under a three-party Account Control Agreement, and an independent Security Agent has visibility over the collateral. The documentation also lists publicly verifiable proof of reserves and audited smart contracts among the framework’s protections. These are the product operator’s descriptions of its protections, not findings from an independent review of the new UK and EU assets’ reserves.
Kraken’s disclosure spells out the counterparty risk. A depositary institution’s insolvency can delay or prevent access to the underlying stocks that serve as collateral, potentially causing partial or total loss. Kraken also warns that its own financial and operational risks as broker and initial custodian exist independently of the underlying companies’ performance. Holders remain exposed to those risks alongside changes in the share price.
Kraken says holders can redeem through Backed for an additional fee or sell on Kraken for dollars, crypto or stablecoins. Those exit routes have separate costs and constraints. The disclosure warns that fees make returns differ from directly holding the underlying equity. It also identifies liquidity risk: insufficient purchase demand can prevent a holder from selling at the desired moment, even when the venue is open for trading.
Scale and the next markets
The broad expansion release reports more than $1.1 billion in assets under management, over $45 billion in total transaction volume and more than 550,000 unique holders worldwide. Payward’s figures cover the entire framework. They do not measure demand for the new UK and European tokens, liquidity available to trade a particular company, or verified reserves for the assets in this launch.
Payward says the expansion delivers on its plans to tokenize the top 100 London-listed equities. The London Stock Exchange intends to list xStocks and begin trading them on LSE 24 in 2027, subject to regulatory approval. That exchange listing is still prospective; the tokens Payward says are available now trade through Kraken and supporting platforms.
The announcement schedules hundreds of Hong Kong-listed equities for the coming weeks, with further international markets to follow. It gives no exact launch date for that group and no new contract addresses for the UK and EU assets announced today.
