Payward, the parent company of Kraken, will enable retail investors globally to access US-listed initial public offerings at the IPO price.
Through the xStocks tokenised equities framework, customers of select xStocks Alliance members, including Kraken, will be able to register interest in a US-listed IPO before it goes public and receive an allocation of tokenised equity at the offering price on listing day.
According to Payward, IPO access has traditionally remained concentrated among institutions, private banking clients and selected platforms with underwriter relationships. This has left many retail investors either excluded from foreign listings or only able to buy once public trading begins.
Payward Services’ xStocks infrastructure aims to narrow that gap by giving eligible retail investors a route to participate before listing day and access tokenised equity at the IPO offering price.
“Going public should mean public to everyone. For decades, getting in at the IPO price has been a privilege of geography and net worth, and the most exciting moments in capital markets have been reserved for the investors closest to them. That worldview is breaking down,” said Mark Greenberg, global head of Payward Services.
“Now a retail investor in Medellín, Madrid, or Malaysia can have similar access to a US-listed IPO, and Payward Services’ xStocks infrastructure is finally making that possible for the masses.”
The capability is built on Payward Services’ xStocks framework, which is designed to make tokenised equity exposure accessible, programmable and portable across the global crypto ecosystem.
Each xStocks tokenised equity is backed 1:1 by the underlying share, held in custody by a regulated entity, and can move across supported chains, DeFi protocols and xStocks Alliance platforms rather than remaining locked to a single venue.
The first tokenised IPOs powered by Payward Services’ xStocks framework will be available in the coming weeks to customers of Kraken and other xStocks Alliance members, with additional launch partners expected in the coming months.
