Key Takeaways:
- xStocks, backed by Backed Finance and supported by Kraken, has launched on Ethereum with 60 tokenized stocks including Nvidia, Tesla, and Amazon.
- The platform, already live on Solana, BNB Chain, and Tron, has processed over $3.5 billion in trading volume since June 2025.
- Tokenized equities face regulatory scrutiny as global watchdogs raise concerns about investor rights and market oversight.
xStocks, the flagship tokenized equities product from Backed Finance, has officially gone live on Ethereum Mainnet, marking its most ambitious expansion yet. The launch brings 60 tokenized U.S. stocks including some of the world’s largest companies to the world’s leading smart contract network, with direct integration into Ethereum’s decentralized finance (DeFi) ecosystem.
The move positions Ethereum as a central hub for tokenized equities, bridging Wall Street and Web3 in a way that could reshape access to traditional financial instruments.
Ethereum Becomes New Home for Tokenized Equities
xStocks had generated noise on Solana, BNB Chain, and Tron by the time they set foot on Ethereum. These previous implementations were already attracting substantial liquidity, and the platform already exceeded $3.5 billion of combined trading volume across centralized and decentralized exchanges in just a few months.
Today, xStocks is leveraging the blockchain with over $500 billion assets secured by Ethereum to deploy over $90 billion total value locked (TVL) in ERC-20 tokens. All tokenized securities are collateralized 1:1 to the underlying equity and provide direct value and transportability across Ethereum wallets, protocols, and dApps.
Kraken, which has partnered with Backed Finance to support distribution, confirmed that eligible clients will soon be able to deposit and withdraw tokenized stocks directly on Ethereum. This will enable easy transfers between centralized exchange accounts and self-custodial wallets, making the investor more flexible.
Read More: Ethereum to Shut Down Holešky, Its Largest Testnet Ever
Why Tokenized Equities Matter
A New Model for Market Access
A tokenized asset is a new form of tokenization of real-world asset (RWA). Rather than trading cryptocurrencies directly, investors can receive blockchain representations of traditional stocks which can be transferred, traded or integrated into DeFi apps.
Supporters believe that this democratizes investment by reducing entry barriers to worldwide retail users. With an Ethereum wallet, anybody could get exposure to major corporations such as Apple, Microsoft, or Meta without the use of a traditional brokerage account.
These equities can also be composed in DeFi protocols, due to the Ethereum deployment. The tokenized stocks have the potential to unlock new layers of financial engineering by allowing developers to integrate them into lending markets, liquidity pools or structured financial products.
Read More: $291 Million Pulled from Bitcoin, Ethereum ETFs as Inflation Spikes Under Trump Tariffs
Market Momentum and Competitive Push
The tokenized equities are becoming one of the hottest areas of the RWA industry. Analytics firm RWA.xyz reported that the cumulative market capitalization of tokenized stocks is currently at $342 million, which is only 1.2% of the total RWA tokenization market of $27.9 billion.
The movement is drawing both traditional and crypto giants into the fintech industry. Recently Robinhood introduced a blockchain network in Europe to allow tokenized stock trading, and Gemini and eToro are looking at the same product within the Ethereum ecosystem. xStocks is joining the best environment ever to grow as Ethereum already dominates 60% of the activity in the DeFi world.
Backed Finance’s strategy is clearly multi-chain. By deploying across Solana, BNB Chain, Tron, and now Ethereum, the company ensures that tokenized equities remain accessible regardless of ecosystem preference. Arjun Sethi, Kraken’s co-CEO, framed it as part of a deliberate plan: “Tokenized equities should be open, portable, and interoperable across ecosystems, giving users the freedom to access markets on the platforms they trust most.”
Regulatory Questions Persist
Despite the excitement, tokenized equities remain a regulatory gray zone. Conventional stock markets and financial regulators have expressed concerns that such instruments do not have the same legal protections as a direct ownership of shares. Shareholders might have no vote or direct claim to the assets of the company.
The United States has increasingly called on the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to increase regulation, and lawyers have cautioned that tokenized equities may confuse securities regulation and digital asset regulation. Regulators around the world are taking a keen interest particularly with the growing pace of adoption.
However, companies such as Backed Finance and Kraken say that complete collateralization and disclosure in the blockchain will give investors access and security that has never been available in the traditional system.
