Crypto exchange Kraken is opening US stock trading to clients across the entire European Economic Area. Eligible users gain access to more than 7,000 US stocks as regulated securities. The same account also holds more than 700 tokenized xStocks.
Kraken ranks among the largest crypto trading platforms worldwide and has so far run mainly digital asset trading. At the same time, the exchange is adding classic, regulated securities to its European lineup for the first time. Those securities sit in one account with more than 600 crypto assets. The provider is group company Payward Europe Digital Solutions (CY) Limited, based in Nicosia. The Cypriot financial regulator CySEC registers it as an investment firm under MiFID II. However, not every existing client gets access automatically. Eligible users must first accept additional terms and conditions.
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Kraken runs US stock trading under a Cypriot MiFID II license
The legal basis of the offering sits in classic EU securities law, not in the crypto regime. Payward Europe Digital Solutions (CY) Limited holds CySEC license number 342/17. In addition, the Cypriot commercial register lists the company under number HE 356603. The company dates back to 2017, formerly under a different name.
MiFID II governs, among other things, investor protection, order execution and transparency duties across the EU. Authorization allows an investment firm to offer investment services throughout the EEA. It does not need separate permission in each member state. Kraken therefore relies on the same regulatory basis as European brokers and asset managers. The US stocks sit in the account as regular securities, not as tokens. As a result, the protections of securities law apply to investors, not those of the crypto regime.
Trading in the more than 7,000 US stocks runs through Kraken Pro on desktop and mobile. The Kraken app also offers it. It comes commission-free, although Kraken attaches an asterisk to that claim. Spreads and currency conversion costs can come on top. Anyone who deposits in euros and buys a security denominated in US dollars therefore carries the conversion themselves. Moreover, the rollout runs selectively and stays limited to US stocks for now. The company wants to open further markets in the coming months, but names neither countries nor dates. In its own announcement, the exchange describes itself as the only crypto-native platform with such an offering. That is self-description, not a verified market claim.
Tokenized xStocks continue in the same account
xStocks map US shares as tokens on a blockchain. Behind each token sits the real security, and tokenization backs it fully at a ratio of 1:1. The tokens run primarily on Solana as SPL tokens, and also on Ethereum. Backed Assets (JE) Limited issues the tokens as a Jersey special purpose vehicle of Swiss-based Backed Finance AG. The Swiss parent falls under the DLT Act. A prime broker of Backed Finance additionally holds the underlying shares in custody in Switzerland. Kraken finally announced the full takeover of Backed Finance in December 2025, without disclosing the purchase price.
Currently the platform lists more than 700 xStocks. Nevertheless, one passage in its own release still carries the figure of 100 securities. Kraken had already reached that level in March 2026. The exchange puts cumulative trading volume since the market launch in late June 2025 at more than USD 38 billion. There is no independent proof for that figure. By comparison, a volume of USD 35 billion in July 2026 rests on firmer ground. Back then it spread across more than 500 listed securities and just under 200,000 holders.
In August 2026, Payward introduced voting rights for the first time. Eligible holders now submit their voting preferences for shareholder meetings through a cooperation with Broadridge. Before that, no voting rights existed. A legal claim to dividends still does not exist, and Kraken merely replicates distributions synthetically. In the case of a dividend, the platform automatically adjusts the holder's xStock balance upward. Alternatively, the platform pays out the equivalent as a USDC airdrop on Solana, net of withholding tax. Specialist analyses do not classify xStocks as MiCA-regulated crypto assets. They count instead as financial instruments, namely a debt instrument of the special purpose vehicle. Holders consequently have no direct shareholder right in the original share and carry issuer risk on top of market risk.
"This launch removes the artificial separation between the traditional and the tokenized format of the same asset. With US stocks and xStocks side by side in one regulated account, clients can choose how they obtain the same underlying exposure […]." - Mark Greenberg, Chief Commercial Officer of Payward
Swiss Kraken clients stay excluded from the offering
The EEA covers the 27 EU states plus Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein. Switzerland is not part of it. In 1992, voters rejected accession. Since then, the federal government has managed market access through more than 120 bilateral agreements with the EU. These agreements cover many areas, but financial market regulation in the sense of MiFID II is not among them. Instead of automatic access to the single market, Switzerland therefore negotiates sector by sector.
For Kraken clients in Switzerland, that carries an immediate consequence. Passporting of the Cypriot license thus stops at the EEA's external border. Kraken's own country list for stock trading confirms this. It names the United States plus 30 EEA states, including Iceland and Liechtenstein. Switzerland does not appear. The announcement does not mention the country either. The company leaves open whether Switzerland follows later.
Custody meanwhile sits in Switzerland. A prime broker of Backed Finance holds the shares behind the xStocks. Backed Finance in turn belongs to a Swiss parent company. For access, however, only the provider's license counts, not the location of custody.
In the app, Swiss clients still see xStocks. Their tickers carry an appended x, such as AAPLx or TSLAx, and they also trade outside US market hours. The regulated share without the suffix remains blocked. Both variants look alike, yet legally they are not the same instrument.
Kraken builds its own TradFi infrastructure through takeovers
The stock launch is not a single step. Kraken bought in series through 2025. After NinjaTrader in May came trading platform Breakout in September, Small Exchange in October and Backed Finance in December. Instead of entering partnerships, the company pulls the needed infrastructure under its own roof. With Backed Finance, the group notably controls issuance, trading and settlement of the xStocks in full. Dependencies on external service providers therefore fall away.
In the background, preparations for the listing continue. In November 2025, Kraken filed a confidential SEC registration and closed a funding round of USD 800 million. The valuation stood at USD 20 billion back then. In March 2026, the company paused the plans because of market conditions. Kraken later confirmed it would carry on. Deutsche Börse Group acquired a secondary stake of 1.5% (fully diluted) for USD 200 million in April 2026. That implies a valuation of USD 13.3 billion and thus a clear decline versus November 2025. Both firms had already announced a strategic partnership in December 2025.
The Block puts the combined share of Ondo Finance, Binance bStocks and Kraken xStocks in tokenized shares at roughly 77%. The sector is highly concentrated overall. Competitors offer tokenized shares as well. A comparably broad order infrastructure for classic securities has not surfaced there so far. Kraken targets exactly that gap with its EEA launch.
