Crypto exchange Kraken said it has agreed to buy tokenization specialist Backed Finance, as crypto companies increasingly put more real-world assets on-chain in a market expected to be worth billions of dollars in less than 10 years.
Kraken plans to add the Swiss-based company’s tokenized stocks and exchange-traded funds (ETFs) to its trading platform, it announced in a press release on Tuesday. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
The stock market has gone on an acquisition spree as it prepares to go public. Earlier this year, it bought US futures platform NinjaTrader for $1.5 billion, US-licensed derivatives trading platform Small Exchange for $100 million and proprietary trading firm Breakout. Last month, Kraken raised $800 million in a fundraising round with participation from Citadel Securities, valuing the company at $20 billion.
“Integrating Backed into Kraken strengthens the core architecture required for open, programmable capital markets,” Arjun Sethi, co-CEO of Kraken, said in the release. “Unifying issuance, trading and settlement under a single framework ensures that the infrastructure of tokenized assets remains transparent, reliable and accessible globally.”
The two introduced xStocks, a tokenized stock offering in June. Since then, xStocks has issued more than $170 million in stock tokens and recorded $2.3 billion in on-chain trading volume, according to a Dune dashboard.
The purchase is part of a broader tokenization trend, as crypto companies and traditional asset managers migrate real-world assets such as bonds, stocks and funds onto blockchain rails. In doing so, they seek operational efficiency, faster settlement, around-the-clock trading and broader distribution, proponents say. The market will be worth $18 trillion by 2033, according to a report from Ripple and BCG.
