Kraken to Acquire Tokenization Platform Backed Finance as Crypto Exchange Extends Buying Spree

In brief

Crypto exchange Kraken is buying tokenized assets platform Backed Finance.
Kraken has made a number of acquisitions this year.
The firm plans to go public.

U.S. crypto exchange Kraken is buying Backed Finance AG in the firm’s latest acquisition to push tokenization, the company announced Tuesday.

Cheyenne, Wyoming-based Kraken said the transaction for the provider of services bridging equities to decentralized finance would “accelerate the global adoption of xStocks”—securities that already trade on markets made available on blockchains.

Kraken this year has been working with Backed to offer tokenized stocks and ETFs to its clients using crypto networks like Ethereum and Solana. Tokenization refers to the process of taking real-world assets and representing them on-chain using digital assets.

“Integrating Backed into Kraken strengthens the core architecture required for open and programmable capital markets,” Kraken co-CEO Arjun Sethi said in a statement.

“Unifying issuance, trading and settlement under one framework ensures the infrastructure for tokenized assets remains transparent, reliable and globally accessible. This is foundational work for the next era of market structure.”

Kraken would not reveal the size of the transaction to Decrypt.

The company has made a number of acquisitions this year as it prepares for a public offering. In September, the exchange bought proprietary trading platform Breakout for an undisclosed amount, and earlier this year snapped up futures trading platform NinjaTrader for $1.5 billion.

Sethi has previously said that “traditional markets run on post-WWII, 1950s banking systems,” and the company was aiming to become an “institutional-grade trading platform where any asset can be traded, anytime.”

He added on Tuesday that the latest acquisition was “bigger than giving people exposure to U.S. equities, it’s about redefining what it means to own assets in the digital era.”

Traditional finance firms’ interest in tokenization has risen in recent years. BlackRock boss Larry Fink has frequently spoken about how it will change capital markets and now has a tokenized money-market fund. And Wall Street giant Franklin Templeton has been tokenizing assets on a number of blockchains for years.