Kraken Agrees to Buy Tokenization Specialist Backed Finance as RWA Trend Accelerates

Crypto exchange Kraken said it agreed to buy tokenization specialist Backed Finance as crypto firms increasingly bring real-world assets onchain in a market that’s projected to be worth trillions of dollars in less than 10 years.

Kraken plans to add the Switzerland-based company’s tokenized stocks and exchange-traded funds (ETFs) to its trading platform, it said in a Tuesday press release. It did not disclose the terms of the deal.

The exchange has been on an acquisition spree as it prepares to go public. Earlier this year, it bought U.S. futures platform NinjaTrader for $1.5 billion, U.S.-licensed derivatives trading venue Small Exchange for $100 million and proprietary trading firm Breakout. Last month, Kraken raised $800 million in a fundraising round with participation from Citadel Securities, valuing the firm at $20 billion.

“Integrating Backed into Kraken strengthens the core architecture required for open and programmable capital markets,” Kraken co-CEO Arjun Sethi said in the statement. “Unifying issuance, trading and settlement under one framework ensures the infrastructure for tokenized assets remains transparent, reliable and globally accessible.”

The two introduced xStocks, a tokenized equities offering in June. Since then, xStocks has issued over $170 million in stock tokens and recorded $2.3 billion of onchain trading volume, according to a Dune dashboard.

The purchase fits into a broader tokenization trend as crypto companies and traditional asset managers migrate real-world assets like bonds, stocks and funds onto blockchain rails. In doing so, they are pursuing operational efficiencies, faster settlement, around-the-clock trading and broader distribution, proponents say. The market will be worth $18 trillion by 2033, according to report from Ripple and BCG.