Imagine your Apple shares acting like a DeFi token – available 24/7, programmable, portable between markets. Nasdaq and Payward (Kraken’s parent company) have just announced that they intend to make this happen. And this is not just PR corporate talk, but a specific architecture with an implementation date. Will Wall Street go even deeper into blockchain and cryptocurrencies?
Nasdaq goes deeper
The numbers speak for themselves: since launch, xStocks has processed a transaction volume exceeding USD 25 billion, of which over USD 4 billion was settled directly on-chain and in less than a year. It’s hard to downplay this.
Tal Cohen, president of Nasdaq, explicitly talks about building a “non-stop financial ecosystem.” Kraken’s Arjun Sethi goes a step further and claims that tokenization can turn stocks into fully programmable financial instruments capable of operating simultaneously on regulated systems and open blockchain networks.
The architecture is well thought out: the regulated Nasdaq infrastructure will provide the private layer, Kraken will provide the blockchain structure. Customers in eligible jurisdictions will be able to freely switch tokens between both environments. The rollout is planned for the first half of 2027.
The bigger picture: the industry is accelerating
Tokenization also attracts other institutions. Intercontinental Exchange (owner of the NYSE) invested in OKX. ARK Invest predicts a market for tokenized assets above USD 11 trillion by 2030, Standard Chartered estimates USD 2 trillion for RWA as early as 2028. Even Robinhood’s CEO claims that most major financial markets will adopt tokenization before the end of the decade.
If anyone still thinks that blockchain is a speculator’s toy, maybe it’s time to update this view 😉
