Kraken xStocks is a collection of tokenized US equities issued by Backed Finance on Solana and listed on Kraken for non-US users. The lineup went live on May 22, 2025 with roughly 60 tickers — AAPL, NVDA, TSLA, AMZN, MSFT, COIN, MSTR, and the SPY ETF among them — trading 24 hours a day, seven days a week, with settlement on Solana rather than DTCC.
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Kraken xStocks are SPL tokens on Solana that represent 1:1 economic exposure to underlying US-listed stocks and ETFs. Each token is collateralized by shares custodied at a Backed Finance prime broker in Switzerland, redeemable by qualified investors, and tradable on Kraken Pro spot markets quoted in USD and USDT around the clock.
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Kraken launched the product in partnership with Backed, a Swiss-regulated issuer that has run tokenized-asset programs since 2021. Tickers follow an "x" suffix convention — AAPLx, TSLAx, NVDAx, SPYx — and resolve to a Backed-issued bToken on Solana under the hood. Backed publishes proof-of-reserve attestations and prospectus documents per ticker on its product page.
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The initial roster covered approximately 60 names spanning mega-cap tech (AAPL, NVDA, MSFT, AMZN, GOOGL, META), retail-favorite single-stocks (TSLA, COIN, MSTR, PLTR, GME), and one broad-market ETF (SPY). Kraken has signaled additional tickers will roll out based on demand, but the on-listing set is the high-volume US universe rather than international or small-cap names.
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Trades execute on Kraken's spot orderbook against USD or USDT, and settle as SPL token transfers on Solana. Users can keep tokens custodied at Kraken, withdraw to a self-custody Solana wallet such as Phantom, or move them to DeFi venues. Off-hours pricing follows orderbook activity, not NYSE closing prints, so the quote can drift from the reference equity overnight.
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The mechanics depart from a traditional brokerage in three concrete ways. First, the matching engine is Kraken's CLOB rather than a routed order to a market maker connected to NYSE or NASDAQ — there is no NBBO obligation and no Reg NMS routing. Second, settlement is T+0 on Solana (sub-second finality, fees under a cent) instead of T+1 through DTCC. Third, the token itself is a bearer asset once withdrawn: whoever holds the SPL token holds the claim, subject to Backed's redemption gates for KYC-cleared qualified investors.
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Trading hours are the headline difference. US equities trade roughly 6.5 hours a day on the primary exchanges (9:30–4:00 ET), extending to about 16 hours including pre- and post-market. xStocks trade 24/7 with no scheduled halt, which means weekend earnings reactions, overnight macro events, and Asia-session moves all price through Kraken's book rather than being trapped behind a closed exchange.
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xStocks are explicitly not available to US persons. Kraken's geo-restrictions block US residents, and Backed's offering documents exclude US, Canadian, UK, and several other jurisdictions in line with the issuer's EU prospectus regime. Eligible users include residents of much of the EU, Latin America, Asia (excluding mainland China and a few others), and Africa, subject to Kraken's KYC.
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The geographic carve-outs reflect securities law rather than technology. Backed's base prospectus is filed under Liechtenstein's FMA and passported into the EEA; the tokens are structured as tracker certificates, which is a recognized product category in Europe but has no equivalent SEC framework. US-domiciled tokenized-equity competitors like Dinari's dShares use a different SEC-registered structure to reach US accredited investors — that path is closed to Backed.
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Trading fees follow Kraken Pro's standard maker-taker schedule, which starts at 0.25% maker / 0.40% taker and steps down with volume — materially higher than the $0-commission norm at Robinhood, Fidelity, or Schwab for US equities. Backed charges no separate per-trade fee but earns a spread on primary issuance and redemption, plus any pass-through corporate-action costs.
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The cost comparison flips on access and time. A US-commission-free broker is unavailable to most non-US users, and even where it is available (e.g., Interactive Brokers internationally), trades are gated to exchange hours, require local FX, and settle T+1 with custody at DTCC. For a São Paulo retail user wanting NVDA exposure on a Sunday night, the xStock at 0.40% is the only path that actually executes.
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Three live venues sell tokenized equities to non-US users in 2026, each with different structure and trade-offs. Kraken xStocks runs Backed's tokens through an exchange interface. Robinhood launched its own tokenized stocks for EU users in mid-2025 on Arbitrum, using a Robinhood-issued wrapper rather than a third-party issuer. Backed sells the same xStock tokens directly through its own portal to qualified investors.

The practical difference: Kraken offers the deepest secondary-market liquidity of the three, Robinhood offers the most familiar app experience for EU retail, and Backed direct is the route for treasuries or funds that want primary issuance and redemption rights. Dinari is the only one of the four with a path to US accredited investors.
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Redemption is gated to KYC-cleared qualified investors transacting directly with Backed, not to retail Kraken users. A retail holder exits xStock exposure by selling the token on Kraken's orderbook back to USD or USDT. Qualified investors who pass Backed's onboarding can redeem 1:1 for the underlying share value in cash, subject to settlement windows and minimum sizes.
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This is the most important asterisk on the "tokenized stock" framing. A retail xStock holder does not have a direct line to the underlying AAPL share — the redemption right sits with the issuer's institutional channel. In practice that has not broken the peg: Backed's market makers arbitrage primary redemption against Kraken's orderbook, which keeps xStock prices tight to reference NYSE quotes during US hours. Off-hours, the peg widens; weekend earnings reactions have moved single names 3–5% before the underlying re-opens.
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Backed passes cash dividends to xStock holders of record as USDC airdrops on Solana, net of any withholding the custodian is obligated to apply. Stock splits adjust the on-chain supply pro rata. Tender offers, M&A, and other discretionary corporate actions are handled case by case per the prospectus, generally by passing economic value to holders rather than direct voting rights.
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Voting is the clearest gap versus direct share ownership. xStock holders are economic-exposure holders, not registered shareholders, and Backed votes the underlying shares per its custodian agreement — typically not at all, or with the broker's default policy. For a passive long-NVDA bet this is irrelevant. For activist or governance use cases, xStocks are not a substitute for direct registration.
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xStocks are Solana SPL tokens; most stablecoin treasuries live on Ethereum L2s or alternative chains. Funding an xStock buy from a USDC balance on Base or Arbitrum requires a cross-chain transfer to Solana before the Kraken deposit. Eco's stablecoin routing covers USDC and USDT moves into Solana, which removes one step for users sourcing dollars from an EVM treasury into a Kraken xStocks position.
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Sources and methodology. Launch date and ticker list verified against Kraken's May 22, 2025 announcement and Backed Finance's product disclosures. Trading-fee schedules from Kraken Pro's published fee page. Stablecoin and chain context from DeFiLlama, May 2026 snapshot. xStocks pricing dynamics vs reference equities are descriptive of typical off-hours behavior, not a guarantee.
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