Kraken to Acquire Tokenization Platform Backed Finance as Crypto Exchange Extends Buying Spree

U.S. crypto change Kraken is shopping for Backed Finance AG within the agency’s newest acquisition to push tokenization, the corporate introduced Tuesday. 

Cheyenne, Wyoming-based Kraken mentioned the transaction for the supplier of companies bridging equities to decentralized finance would “speed up the worldwide adoption of xStocks”—securities that already commerce on markets made accessible on blockchains. 

Kraken this yr has been working with Backed to supply tokenized shares and ETFs to its shoppers utilizing crypto networks like Ethereum and Solana. Tokenization refers back to the means of taking real-world belongings and representing them on-chain utilizing digital belongings. 

“Integrating Backed into Kraken strengthens the core structure required for open and programmable capital markets,” Kraken co-CEO Arjun Sethi mentioned in a press release. 

“Unifying issuance, buying and selling and settlement beneath one framework ensures the infrastructure for tokenized belongings stays clear, dependable and globally accessible. That is foundational work for the subsequent period of market construction.”

Kraken wouldn’t reveal the scale of the transaction to Decrypt. 



The corporate has made numerous acquisitions this yr because it prepares for a public providing. In September, the change purchased proprietary buying and selling platform Breakout for an undisclosed quantity, and earlier this yr snapped up futures buying and selling platform NinjaTrader for $1.5 billion. 

Sethi has beforehand mentioned that “conventional markets run on post-WWII, Nineteen Fifties banking methods,” and the corporate was aiming to develop into an “institutional-grade buying and selling platform the place any asset will be traded, anytime.”

He added on Tuesday that the most recent acquisition was “larger than giving individuals publicity to U.S. equities, it is about redefining what it means to personal belongings within the digital period.”

Conventional finance companies’ curiosity in tokenization has risen lately. BlackRock boss Larry Fink has continuously spoken about the way it will change capital markets and now has a tokenized money-market fund. And Wall Road large Franklin Templeton has been tokenizing belongings on numerous blockchains for years.