LONDON & ST HELIER, Jersey, Sept 1 — Payward, the developer of the xStocks tokenized equities framework, and the London Stock Exchange are partnering to advance the tokenization of UK equity markets. In the coming weeks, the 100 largest companies listed on the London Stock Exchange will be available as xStocks, the world’s most widely traded tokenized equities framework. Together the two firms will explore how onchain distribution and regulated market infrastructure can support the next stage of tokenized public equity markets.
xStocks are 1:1 backed tokenized representations of publicly traded shares. Developed by Payward, xStocks track the performance of the underlying security while adding the speed, programmability, and around-the-clock access of blockchains. The assets can move between centralized exchanges, self-custodied wallets, and onchain applications, giving holders utility that a share sitting in a traditional brokerage account cannot currently offer.
The framework has grown quickly. In just over a year, xStocks have passed $40 billion in total volume, including nearly $20 billion settled onchain, across over 200,000 holders. They also let investors around the world get early access to select U.S. companies ahead of their public listings through tokenized exposure, an early signal of how tokenization can open markets that were previously closed to the majority.
Payward will soon be tokenizing the top 100 London-listed stocks as xStocks, giving investors in more than 110 countries a direct, onchain route into the UK’s largest listed names, tradable 24/7 as programmable assets. xStocks are not currently available for UK-based investors. For UK-listed companies, the framework creates an additional global distribution channel, expanding the potential investor base and extending access to their shares through tokenization.
Subject to regulatory approval, the London Stock Exchange will then begin listing xStocks and support trading on LSE 24, LSE’s recently announced 24-hour trading venue, broadening the range of available assets as the framework expands further. Once live, the suite of supported xStocks will include tokenized equities representing assets listed in the U.S., EU, UK, Hong Kong, alongside additional asset classes, giving LSE member firms a route into continuously trading global markets from within a familiar, regulated environment.
Today’s announcement is the first step in a wider collaboration to modernize how UK equities are issued, traded and settled, connecting established capital markets with open, programmable blockchain infrastructure. The two firms will also explore native LSE issued equity tokens, enabling London Stock Exchange members to issue and service equity natively onchain, with the same rights and full fungibility as traditional shares.
“For years the assumption was that crypto and traditional finance were on a collision course, and one of them would have to lose. That was never the real story. The real opportunity is what happens when they run on the same rails. Tokenization hasn’t just widened who can reach a market, it changes how the market itself works, how shares are issued, how they trade, how they settle, and how freely they move once they do. Bringing London-listed companies onchain as xStocks is the start of that, demonstrating how investors can access public markets in new ways. An equity that can trade around the clock, reach an investor almost anywhere, and still carry the price integrity of the underlying starts to show what becomes possible when securities move onto blockchain rails. The next step is connecting those new forms of access with trusted market infrastructure. Doing this with an institution the calibre of the London Stock Exchange is what turns that vision from an idea into lasting market infrastructure,” said Arjun Sethi, Co-CEO of Payward.
Julia Hoggett, CEO of LSE plc and Head of Digital and Securities Markets, LSEG, said: “Tokenization has the potential to change how investors access, and how issuers use, financial markets, but it must develop in a way that preserves the trust, rights and role of regulated markets. By working with Payward, and continuing to collaborate across the market infrastructure ecosystem, we are exploring how issuers and investors can benefit from new forms of access while maintaining the standards that underpin public markets.”
The first London-listed xStocks will be live shortly on Kraken and other supporting xStocks Alliance platforms, reaching investors in more than 110 markets. It is an early step toward a global market that never closes, where assets listed from across the world can be held and traded onchain around the clock.