In short
- Payward and GTN plan to expand maxStocks beyond the US markets into trading from Hong Kong, the UK, Europe, and South Korea.
- GTN will provide management, storage, and custody of the assets under any new trademark; Corporate distribution follows pending approval by each market.
- The move puts xStocks in direct competition with Robinhood Chain, Coinbase’s planned tokenized offering, and Nasdaq’s tokenized equities gateway.
Payward, parent company of crypto exchange Kraken, agreed and global fintech GTN on Wednesday pushed xSstocks out of the US market for the first time.
Currently, xStocks only come as US equities, but that’s it commercial availability for investors outside the United States. This move will increase the supply of equity from other markets around the world.
Kraken’s xStocks are blockchain-based tokens, each backed by one share and a real share of the company held in their hands. Expanding their reach beyond US equities and moving to take stocks, the most difficult part of the crypto market, to the next step.
“Financial institutions want to enter new product classes and markets without reinventing their technology,” said Ankit Shah, Head of Global FinTech at GTN. “Our infrastructure allows partners like Payward to quickly deploy in 90+ markets and multiple devices, and includes the accounting technology Kraken has to offer tokenized products.”
The partnership starts with organizations based in Hong Kong and expands from the UK, Europe, and South Korea. Depending on the regulatory approvals in each jurisdiction, it also opens the door to trading in shares of assets that are more valuable than equities altogether.
At launch, xStocks was launched in June 2025 with a small catalog of US stocks and ETFs and has grown to over 500 token assets and managed over $35 billion in sales. xstocks is they are not available for US citizens.
According to the terms of the agreement, GTN is providing global trading solutions, while Payward is using its xStocks solutions to manage global funds and bring them to the blockchain network.
Mark Greenberg, global head of Payward Services, identified a problem that the agreement should solve. Token assets give users the ability to exchange whatever they want, without worrying about stability.
“For many years, we have agreed that the capital markets should be divided by country, currency, and market timing. That is the problem of financial markets,” said Greenberg.
The agreement is at the infrastructure level. GTN’s customer distribution is subject to the necessary licenses when available in each market.
Many big players are already moving in the same direction. Robinhood launched its tokenized transaction through its blockchain on July 1, and Coinbase is planning a 1:1 offering through its Base network.
In March, Payward and Nasdaq announced the gateway to tokenized equities targeting early 2027. Previously, xStocks extended to Telegraph’s TON Walletto test whether the distribution of the mass market was something that could open the scales.
What separates the GTN partnership is the size of the map. Robinhood and Coinbase are chasing US stocks. Payward is outpacing everything else, starting with Hong Kong, and over 90 GTN markets are still in demand.
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