xStocks top $25B in trades as Kraken moves to acquire Backed
xStocks pass major volume milestone; market structure shifts
Market milestone: Since launching last year, the xStocks product family has pushed past $25 billion in cumulative trading, with roughly $3.5 billion executed on public blockchains.
Holder depth and capital: Onchain records show more than 80,000 unique holders of xStocks and about $225 million under direct management tied to these instruments.
Custody model: Each tokenized share is issued with parity backing by an off-chain equivalent held by licensed custodians, a structure meant to preserve convertibility and settlement assurance.
Chain positioning: Analytics place xStocks’ Solana deployments near the lead in market share, while rival solutions on Ethereum and other chains hold substantial slices.
Industry moves: Kraken is finalizing acquisition talks for Backed, the issuer that creates xStocks — a step that would fold issuance capabilities into a major exchange distribution channel and shorten the route from issuance to retail liquidity.
Strategic context: The planned acquisition aligns with broader corporate momentum: Kraken’s parent group (Payward) closed 2025 with materially stronger top-line performance, reporting adjusted revenue of about $2.2 billion as it broadened beyond spot trading into custody, payments and tokenized products.
Capital optionality: Financial backing and a publicly listed SPAC vehicle have given the group acquisition firepower and valuation support — reported post-money valuations near $20 billion — making strategic deals like Backed more feasible without immediate strain on operations.
Network-driven operating model: Management has emphasized building shared rails and layering new products to leverage cross-selling and marginal-cost economics, a thesis that helps explain the push to internalize issuance and distribution.
Competitive context: Market-level comparisons show tokenized equities are an expanding niche: other firms such as Ondo and BNN Chain operate competing rails and issuance platforms that capture meaningful usage, pressuring fees and product differentiation.
Onchain vs offchain dynamics: Although a fraction of total activity currently clears on public ledgers, the $3.5 billion onchain footprint and the rising holder count indicate growing user preference for visible, 24/7 tradability.
Signals for liquidity providers: The scale already reached suggests firms supporting these markets can expect deeper order books but also tighter margins as competition intensifies and exchange-backed issuers compete on distribution.
Regulatory visibility and risks: Rapid volume growth combined with exchange-level consolidation, plus Kraken’s increasingly diversified product set and cross-border ambitions, will likely increase scrutiny from securities and custodial regulators and raise compliance costs.
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