Kraken's parent company Payward Services has announced a new service set to launch in the coming weeks, allowing retail investors worldwide to directly subscribe to US IPO shares at the issue price through its xStocks framework. The move directly challenges the traditional Wall Street privilege that has long restricted IPO allocations to institutions and high-net-worth individuals.
Retail investors no longer forced to buy at inflated prices
Historically, retail investors were largely excluded from participating in US IPOs at the offering price. They could only buy shares after public trading began, often at a premium. With xStocks, investors from places like Medellín, Madrid, or Malaysia can now access US IPOs on equal footing with institutions.
Mark Greenberg, global head of Payward Services, said: "Going public should mean open to all. For decades, IPO price participation has been a privilege of geography and wealth. Now, retail investors can enjoy similar access."
How tokenized shares work: multi-chain support and DeFi composability
The process is straightforward. Partner exchanges open an "Indication of Interest" window weeks before the IPO, where users submit non-binding purchase intentions within a price range. Payward aggregates global demand and negotiates with the underwriting syndicate. On listing day, once allocation is confirmed, shares are tokenized — each token backed 1:1 by the underlying real stock and custodied by regulated entities. Tokenized shares are then distributed to users at the original issue price.
The xStocks framework, originally built by Backed Finance and later acquired by Payward, issues tokenized equities on multiple blockchains including Ethereum, Solana, and TON. This enables cross-platform transferability and integration with DeFi protocols.
xStocks surpasses $30 billion in total volume
To date, xStocks has recorded over $30 billion in total trading volume, $6 billion in on-chain settlements, and more than 125,000 unique holders. Payward plans to expand the service to more countries and add more xStocks alliance partners in the coming months. The initiative marks Kraken's deeper push into tokenized equities, offering non-US investors round-the-clock stock trading opportunities.