Crypto exchange Kraken has agreed to acquire Backed Finance. Backed is the issuer behind Kraken’s xStocks, placing the exchange firmly in control of a high-growth segment within digital assets.
The acquisition target, Backed Finance, issues tokens that mirror about 71 traditional assets such as equities and exchange-traded funds, with each token backed one-for-one by the actual security. According to RWA.xyz, Backed holds the position of the second-largest provider in the tokenized public stocks space with a 23% market share.
Kraken’s blog post announcing the deal did not reveal the purchase price or other financial details.
This acquisition formalizes an existing and expanding collaboration between the two companies. Backed’s technology has powered xStocks from the beginning, facilitating products that have seen more than $5 billion in total trading volume on Kraken. The exchange expanded the offering to the US market early this year, followed by a European rollout and the addition of support for Tron, BNB Chain, and Solana blockchains.
Beyond Kraken, Backed’s infrastructure supports a growing list of industry tokenization projects. Bybit, for example, leveraged Backed to bring tokenized versions of Nvidia and Strategy stocks onto the Mantle ecosystem.
