Kraken’s tokenized equities platform, xStocks, has surpassed $25 billion in total transaction volume less than eight months after launch, underscoring accelerating adoption as tokenization gains traction among mainstream investors.
Kraken disclosed Thursday that the $25 billion figure includes trading across centralized exchanges and decentralized exchanges, as well as minting and redemption activity. The milestone represents a 150% increase since November, when xStocks crossed $10 billion in cumulative transaction volume.
The xStocks tokens are issued by Backed Finance, a regulated asset provider that creates 1:1 backed tokenized representations of publicly traded equities and exchange-traded funds. Kraken serves as a primary distribution and trading venue, while Backed is responsible for structuring and issuing the tokenized instruments.
When xStocks debuted in 2025, it offered more than 60 tokenized equities, including shares tied to major US technology companies like Amazon, Meta Platforms, Nvidia and Tesla.
Kraken said onchain activity has been a key growth driver since launch, with xStocks generating $3.5 billion in onchain trading volume and surpassing 80,000 unique onchain holders.
Unlike trading that occurs solely within centralized exchanges’ internal order books, onchain activity takes place directly on public blockchains, where transactions are transparent and wallets can self-custody assets.
Growing onchain participation suggests users are not only trading tokenized equities but also integrating them into broader decentralized finance (DeFi) ecosystems.
Kraken said that eight of the 11 largest tokenized equities by unique holder count are now part of the xStocks ecosystem, signaling increased market share in the emerging tokenized equities sector.
Tokenized stocks mirror stablecoins’ early growth
Tokenization of real-world assets (RWAs) remains one of the fastest-growing segments of the digital asset market, even as broader crypto prices have trended lower since the start of the year.
Tokenized RWAs have increased 13.5% in total value over the last 30 days, according to industry data. By comparison, the broader crypto market shed about $1 trillion in market value over the same period.
Market observers say tokenized stocks may be experiencing their own “stablecoin moment,” a reference to the rapid early adoption that propelled dollar-pegged digital assets into mainstream use.
Data from Token Terminal shows tokenized stocks reached a market capitalization of $1.2 billion in December, after being virtually nonexistent six months earlier.
