Payward Democratizes IPO Access Through Tokenized Shares for Kraken Users
A groundbreaking initiative from Payward Services aims to provide tokenized participation in US initial public offerings, granting Kraken users and additional retail investors the opportunity to buy in at offering prices.
A groundbreaking tokenized equities initiative from Payward Services, a company affiliated with Kraken, will enable retail investors to gain access to US initial public offerings (IPOs) at the offering price in the near future.
Payward Services revealed in an announcement on Wednesday that Kraken customers, along with chosen participants of its xStocks Alliance, will have the opportunity to indicate their interest in US-listed IPOs prior to companies becoming publicly traded and secure allocations of tokenized equity on the day of listing.
The company explained that these shares will be distributed at the IPO offering price and maintained with a 1:1 backing by the actual stock held under custody by a regulated entity, granting qualified retail investors access to allocations traditionally limited to institutional investors.
This initiative represents one of the most recent attempts to leverage blockchain technology to expand access to conventional financial instruments as part of a worldwide movement toward real-world asset (RWA) tokenization.
Bringing IPO allocations onchain
According to the outlined process, exchanges that participate will launch an indication-of-interest period in the weeks leading up to an IPO, providing customers the ability to submit requests that are non-binding to acquire shares within the anticipated pricing range.
Demand from participating platforms will be consolidated by Payward, which will then collaborate with an underwriting syndicate ahead of finalization of allocations on the day the company officially goes public.
The shares that result from this process will undergo tokenization and be distributed via partner exchanges, providing investors with exposure to companies that are newly listed without requiring them to establish accounts with conventional brokerage firms.
First availability expected in coming weeks
Customers of Kraken along with other members of the xStocks Alliance should expect the initial tokenized IPO offerings to be made available in the coming weeks, while Payward has plans to expand its roster of launch partners and markets as time progresses.
"Going public should mean public to everyone,"
Mark Greenberg, global head of Payward Services
According to Mark Greenberg, global head of Payward Services, accessing IPOs at the offering price has remained a "privilege of geography and net worth" throughout the past several decades.
"Now a retail investor in Medellín, Madrid, or Malaysia can have similar access to a US-listed IPO, and Payward Services' xStocks infrastructure is finally making that possible for the masses," the executive added.
This announcement arrives during a period of increasing interest in tokenized RWAs, with research from Bernstein indicating that the RWA market has achieved a valuation of $51 billion following a 42% expansion this year.
According to Payward Services, xStocks handled more than $30 billion in transaction volume throughout its initial year, which included over $6 billion that was settled onchain, reaching more than 125,000 holders across the globe. Kraken's acquisition of xStocks operator Backed Finance took place in late 2025.