Payward Services, Kraken's parent company, will allow retail investors globally to participate in US-listed initial public offerings at the offering price through its xStocks tokenized equities framework, the company announced June 3.
In the weeks before a listing, xStocks Alliance partner exchanges open an indication of interest window during which customers can submit non-binding offers to buy within the company's indicated price range. Payward Services aggregates that demand and works with an underwriting syndicate on behalf of all Alliance partners. On listing day, allocations are finalized, IPO shares are tokenized at a 1:1 ratio to the underlying share and held in custody by a regulated entity, then distributed to eligible customers at the IPO price through whichever platform they already use.
The significance is in the pricing. Retail investors in most markets currently have no path to a foreign IPO at the offering price, and where retail access does exist, investors typically buy after trading begins — by which point institutional participants have already secured allocations at the lower offer price. The xStocks mechanism gives retail customers access at a comparable entry point.
"Going public should mean public to everyone," said Mark Greenberg, global head of Payward Services. "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."
xStocks tokens are blockchain agnostic, interoperable across chains, and composable with DeFi protocols. The framework has processed over $30 billion in total transaction volume in its first year, with more than $6 billion settled onchain across more than 125,000 unique holders globally.
The first tokenized IPOs under this structure will be available in the coming weeks to Kraken customers and other xStocks Alliance members. Payward said it plans to expand to new markets and bring additional Alliance partners on board in the months ahead. The announcement does not name any specific IPOs.
