Hey, it’s Marc,
Crypto promised to kill the middleman.
The middleman just hired crypto instead.
Nasdaq and Kraken are turning every Nasdaq-listed stock into a blockchain token, same CUSIP, same rules, just faster.
Through Kraken’s xStocks, NASDAQ has access to 68% of the tokenized equities market with $25B+ in transaction volume across 85,000 unique holders. [RELEASE]
The stock market is about to run 24/7. Let’s unpack.
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What happened
Nasdaq and Payward will co-develop an integration layer that converts existing Nasdaq-listed equities into blockchain-recorded tokens. Unlike third-party tokenized stock products (which create derivative wrappers), Nasdaq’s model uses issuer-sponsored tokens that maintain the same CUSIP identifiers1 and NBBO pricing2 obligations as their traditional counterparts. The tokens exist as records in the issuer’s official share registry. The only difference is that the record now lives on a blockchain instead of in a 1970s-era clearinghouse.
Zooming in: Right now, if you buy a stock on a Friday afternoon, you don’t actually own it until Monday. This upgrades the behind-the-scenes plumbing — clearinghouses, settlement systems, record-keeping, for tokenised stocks.
Here’s what that actually changes for you: With blockchain-recorded tokens, that entire chain collapses into minutes. Ownership transfers instantly, automatically, and with a permanent record that everyone can verify. And, all of this takes place instantly with no 2 days of waiting.
What this unlocks:
Trade at 2am on a Saturday. Markets don’t have to close anymore. A retail investor in Tokyo and a fund manager in London can trade Apple shares at 2am on a Saturday.
Sell today, spend today. Sell a stock today, use the proceeds today, not two days from now.
Lower costs. Fewer intermediaries means fewer fees eating into your returns.
$50 buys you Apple. Fractional ownership becomes easier to manage, meaning someone with $50 can own a slice of a $500 stock with the same legal protections as an institutional investor.
And critically, nothing about the stock itself changes. It’s still the same Apple share, with the same rights, the same price, the same legal protections. The only thing changing is the infrastructure underneath it.
Zooming in: The partnership builds on Kraken’s acquisition of Backed Finance in December 2025, the Swiss-regulated token issuer behind the xStocks framework. Backed’s ERC-3643 permissioned smart contract architecture gives Kraken a ready-made compliance layer that satisfies European MiCA requirements. The target go-live is H1 2027.
The SEC’s January 30, 2026 Staff Statement on tokenised securities provides the regulatory foundation. That statement established a taxonomy distinguishing issuer-sponsored tokens (same regulatory treatment as traditional securities) from third-party sponsored tokens (subject to additional obligations). Nasdaq’s framework targets the first category.
Two exchanges. Two bets. One is wrong
Nasdaq and NYSE are racing for the same prize: 24/7 stock trading with institutional-grade compliance. They picked opposite strategies. Nasdaq chose integration: same CUSIP, same pricing, blockchain as the record-keeper. NYSE chose separation: a $200M investment in OKX, a new venue, crypto-native infrastructure built from scratch. Nasdaq's bet says the future looks exactly like the present, just faster. NYSE says the future needs its own plumbing. One of them is wrong, and the loser writes off billions.
