Backed

Introducing xStocks ❎

A new line of tokenized assets to transform the way people interact with finance, with over 50 stocks and ETFs soon available on @krakenfx and @solana. No borders, no brokers, no barriers.

In your wallet to own, integrated with DeFi to use, boundless to grow. xStocks are designed for access and composability, bringing the stock market within reach of users around the world through the blockchain.

Follow @xStocksFi for updates.

It's time to take the next step.

Today, we're going all in on @xStocksFi. If you hold a tokenized equity like bTSLA, you can upgrade it to TSLAx — an identical product under a different brand.

bTokens and xStocks are issued by the same entity, under the same prospectus, with the same collateral structure. Both are fully collateralized 1:1 by the underlying asset, held with regulated custodians, and carry the same investor protections. Same underlying, same exposure, same rights. And yet, xStocks are different.

xStocks have over 100 assets, offering capital market liquidity during the week and onchain price discovery on weekends. They are integrated across SVM and EVM, available on liquidity pools, borrow/lend markets and yield protocols. From CEXes to DeFi, xStocks have been adopted by retail and professional traders alike.

What started as a few tokenized equities with an ambitious vision has been realized as the standard for tokenized stocks and ETFs, with hundreds of millions in assets tokenized, more than $25B in total volume and nearly 100,000 unique onchain holders.

As we expand across exchanges and chains, protocols and apps, it's time to focus our efforts on the product that can take on the stock market and tokenize it.

bToken holders can access onchain liquidity on Ethereum Mainnet to upgrade from bTokens to xStocks on supported decentralized venues such as CoW Swap. Users can bridge using the bTokens Bridge.

We encourage all bToken holders to begin upgrading to xStocks. For bTokens upgrade support contact us at btokens@backed.fi

For equities, the transition is straightforward — the underlying asset is the same, and the swap is 1:1. For example, bTSLA → TSLAx, bNVDA → NVDAx, bAAPL → AAPLx, and so on.

For ETFs, xStocks offers an updated selection. While the underlying ETFs differ, the xStock counterparts provide similar investment exposure. The exchange ratio between bToken ETFs and their xStock equivalents will be determined by the issuer.

bCSPX can be converted into SPYx.
bC3M, bIB01, bIBTA and bHIGH can be converted into TBLLx.

By the end of 2026, bTokens will be gradually wound down. They will remain redeemable throughout the wind down period, and holders will be supported whether they decide to convert or redeem.

For more information on xStocks, visit xstocks.fi. For bToken documentation and legal resources, visit assets.backed.fi.

Today, we are announcing that Backed will become part of @krakenfx. For us, this moment represents the culmination of a long and demanding journey, one shaped by a clear vision, guided by discipline, and driven by a small group of people who believed that equities deserved an open, global, onchain future.

Backed was founded in 2021 with an ambitious idea: if the internet has a native currency, it should also have native capital markets. At the time, the space for onchain equities barely existed, and yet the direction was clear to us. Just as stablecoins transformed how money moves online, tokenized equities would one day transform how people access markets. We built Backed around this conviction.

Over the years, this small but mighty team has always punched above its weight. Across engineering, operations, marketing, compliance, and product, this group designed and built a tokenization engine adopted by leading exchanges, wallets, and protocols. The work required navigating regulation that was and is still evolving and building operational systems from first principles, all while maintaining reliability. There were difficult phases, periods of low market activity, operational constraints, and moments when progress demanded hard decisions. Through all of it, the team continued to deliver. The team’s commitment and technical excellence built the foundations that made this milestone possible. To everyone on the team, past and present, thank you.

Our investors and early supporters were critical. They believed in this mission when the category was still undefined, supported us through pivots, market cycles, and the long road to regulatory and product readiness. Their patience and conviction allowed us to stay focused on building something durable rather than chasing short-term trends, and led us to where we are today. A special thanks goes to the @gnosis_ team, who supported us well beyond the role of investors at crucial moments.

The launch of @xStocksFi earlier this year was a turning point. For the first time, tokenized equities became available at scale, with more than 60 assets on day one on Kraken, deep liquidity on @solana, and global access. Adoption grew rapidly. Holders increased almost tenfold to more than 84,000, daily transaction volume exceeded 30 million dollars, total volumes crossed 12 billion dollars, and AUM reached 175 million dollars. xStocks expanded into major DeFi applications, new exchanges, and multiple chains. This confirmed what we believed from the start: global, 24/7 equities on open rails are inevitable. But to bring this to millions of users, tokenized equities require global distribution, regulatory depth, and operational scale.

Our work with Kraken began long before this acquisition. From the earliest design sessions to the rollout and expansion of xStocks, we found strong alignment, a belief in accessible markets, transparent infrastructure, and a long-term approach to building financial rails. Kraken’s platform, regulatory experience, and global reach made them the right partner from the beginning. Now we unite for the next stage. Joining forces is not a shift in mission, it is an expansion of what is now possible.

As part of Kraken, we will accelerate the adoption of tokenized equities to a far broader audience. We will work to ensure xStocks become as accessible and composable as stablecoins, operating across exchanges, wallets, and applications used every day. The mission remains the same: to make financial assets open, efficient, and easy to access. With Kraken, we can pursue it at a global scale.

To everyone who has been part of this journey, team, investors, partners, and users, thank you. Your support carried us through the most demanding stages and made this milestone possible. We are proud of what was built at Backed and excited for what comes next as part of Kraken. The mission continues. The scale evolves. Onwards.

Four years of building. Four years committed to a vision of open, composable, accessible finance.

A huge thanks to all our partners and supporters throughout the years, we wouldn't have gotten here without you. And we're only getting started.

When we say tokenized stocks are meant to be composable, this is what we mean.

And we're only just beginning.