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Points of Focus
- Payward will tokenize 100 largest London-listed companies as xStocks soon.
- LSE 24 could support xStocks trading around-the-clock from 2027 onward.
- Partnership explores tokens preserving shareholder rights and governance protections fully.
The London Stock Exchange is teaming up with Kraken parent Payward to bring tokenized stocks onto regulated market infrastructure, with plans to list xStocks on its coming 24-hour trading venue in 2027.
Under the partnership announced Sept. 1, Payward will tokenize the 100 largest London-listed companies as xStocks in the coming weeks. Subject to regulatory approval, the London Stock Exchange intends to list xStocks on LSE 24, its round-the-clock trading platform scheduled for 2027.
The project also goes beyond simply putting existing xStocks on an exchange. LSEG and Payward will explore issuer-sponsored tokenized equities designed to retain shareholder rights and governance protections associated with conventional public markets.
Payward will tokenize London’s top 100 stocks
Payward says its xStocks framework has already passed $40 billion in total trading volume, including more than $20 billion settled onchain, with over 200,000 holders.
Existing xStocks are 1:1 backed representations of underlying equities. They can move between supported exchanges, self-custody wallets and blockchain applications rather than remaining inside a single brokerage account.
The new UK products are expected to provide investors in more than 110 countries with tokenized exposure to major London-listed businesses. They will not initially be available to UK-based investors.
That creates an unusual situation: securities linked to London-listed companies could trade around the clock internationally while investors in Britain remain excluded from the xStocks product under current restrictions. Kraken also currently blocks xStocks access in the US, Canada, UK and Australia.
Some existing xStocks already trade 24/7 on Kraken Pro, including tokenized versions of Tesla, Nvidia, Apple, Strategy, SPY and QQQ.
LSE wants tokenization without stripping shareholder rights
The London Stock Exchange is simultaneously examining a separate UK tokenized-equity structure that could use LSEG’s Digital Securities Depository for settlement and asset servicing.
That distinction is important because existing xStocks do not provide the full legal rights attached to owning ordinary shares. Kraken says holders receive economic exposure but do not receive voting rights, while dividend economics can be passed through using a rebasing mechanism.
LSE CEO Julia Hoggett said tokenization must preserve the “trust, rights and role of regulated markets,” indicating the exchange wants blockchain-based shares to move closer to conventional securities rather than simply creating wrappers tracking their prices.
LSEG is also developing a Digital Settlement House and previously announced blockchain-based settlement infrastructure, putting issuance, trading and post-trade settlement into the same broader modernization strategy.
Tokenized stocks are moving onto established exchanges
The partnership puts LSE directly into a race that already includes crypto companies and conventional exchanges.
Robinhood has expanded tokenized stock access in Europe, while Coinbase has been pursuing its own tokenized-equities strategy. Deutsche Börse has also increased its exposure to the sector, including a $200 million investment in Kraken.
But regulators remain cautious. The World Federation of Exchanges has warned that some tokenized-stock structures can confuse investors about ownership rights and potentially fragment liquidity away from regulated equity markets.
LSE and Payward are trying to bridge that gap by putting tokenized products onto regulated exchange infrastructure.
If approved, LSE 24 would effectively connect two market models that have remained largely separate: traditional shares built around regulated exchanges and trading sessions, and blockchain assets designed for continuous, transferable trading.
For London, the larger test is whether 24/7 tokenized equities can expand access without creating a second, weaker version of the underlying stock market.
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