Kraken has launched regulated tokenised equity perpetual futures for eligible non-US clients, offering 24/7 leveraged exposure of up to 20x to major US stock indices, gold and individual companies including Nvidia, Apple and Tesla.
The contracts, structured as perpetual futures without expiry, are built on the xStocks framework and reference blockchain-based representations of publicly traded shares and exchange-traded funds rather than holding the underlying equities directly.
Kraken said the products are the first regulated tokenised equity perpetual futures listed on a derivatives venue and are available in more than 110 countries, with additional contracts potentially subject to regulatory approval.
The launch follows Kraken’s December agreement to acquire Backed Finance AG, the issuer of xStocks, and the exchange said xStocks has surpassed $25 billion in cumulative transaction volume less than eight months after launch.
Kraken previously expanded into traditional derivatives through its roughly $1.5 billion acquisition of NinjaTrader, a registered Futures Commission Merchant with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, and later introduced tokenised equities in Europe.
Rival exchanges are making similar moves, with Gemini launching tokenised US-listed shares in the European Union and Coinbase rolling out commission-free stock and ETF trading for US users as part of its strategy to become an “everything app”.