Press release | Payward partners with Nasdaq to develop xStocks-powered gateway connecting permissioned and permissionless tokenized equities markets

Payward partners with Nasdaq to develop xStocks-powered gateway connecting permissioned and permissionless tokenized equities markets

March 9, 2026

xStocks will power the permissionless infrastructure layer supporting Nasdaq's issuer-sponsored equity tokens, enabling transfers seamlessly between regulated capital markets and decentralized blockchain ecosystems in eligible jurisdictions

We’re excited to announce a partnership with Nasdaq to develop next-generation infrastructure connecting tokenized equity capital markets with decentralized blockchain networks.

The initiative builds on the growing adoption of xStocks, which provide tokenized exposure to publicly traded equities across blockchain ecosystems. Since launching less than a year ago, xStocks have surpassed $25 billion in total transaction volume, including more than $4 billion settled on-chain, with over 85,000 unique holders across supported networks.

The collaboration will support the upcoming Nasdaq Equity Tokens, a suite of issuer-sponsored tokens designed to represent public company equity in digital form while retaining the regulatory framework, governance rights, and market protections of traditional securities.

Both organizations believe equity security tokenization has the potential to transform capital markets, modernizing how securities are issued, traded, and settled while enabling greater global access, programmability, and operational efficiency across financial infrastructure.

"Tokenization works because it upgrades market infrastructure at the asset layer, not just the user interface. Today, access to equities is constrained by jurisdiction, market hours, fragmented intermediaries, and capital inefficiencies that prevent both issuers and investors from fully participating in global markets," said Arjun Sethi, Co-CEO of Payward and Kraken.

Building the infrastructure for tokenized equity markets

As part of the partnership, Payward and Nasdaq will develop an Equities Transformation Gateway, powered by the xStocks framework, designed to connect regulated, permissioned equity markets with permissionless decentralized financial networks in jurisdictions where xStocks are available.

Within this architecture, the xStocks framework will serve as the infrastructure layer powering the permissionless ecosystem, enabling tokenized equities to interact with open blockchain networks while remaining aligned with the underlying securities traded within regulated markets.

The gateway will allow clients in eligible jurisdictions to seamlessly swap tokenized equities between a regulated, permissioned market environment and the permissionless DeFi ecosystem, enabling assets to move fluidly between institutional trading infrastructure and global on-chain financial networks.

“

That is why our partnership with Nasdaq matters: not only to tokenize equities, but to build the liquidity layer and customer-facing applications that allow tokenized stocks to function as a more global, capital-efficient market structure.”

Arjun Sethi, Co-CEO of Payward

Connecting regulated markets with on-chain financial networks

To support the integrity of the ecosystem, Payward Services will provide KYC and AML onboarding for holders of Nasdaq Equity Tokens through our platform, ensuring participants accessing the gateway between regulated permissioned equity markets and the permissionless decentralized ecosystem meet applicable compliance requirements in relevant jurisdictions.

In addition, in eligible jurisdictions where clients can trade xStocks today, we will serve as the primary and foundational settlement layer for Nasdaq Equity Token transactions for an initial period, providing the infrastructure necessary to enable secure and efficient tokenized equity settlement across connected networks.

By connecting Nasdaq's market infrastructure with the xStocks ecosystem, the gateway is designed to create interoperability between institutional trading environments and decentralized networks. This architecture allows equity securities to move fluidly between regulated capital markets and global onchain networks, while preserving issuer rights, regulatory compliance, and price integrity.

The Equities Transformation Gateway will be available to clients in jurisdictions where xStocks are available and where Payward is appropriately registered, licensed, and approved to offer such.*

Sethi added, "With xStocks, the goal is to make equities natively interoperable across regulated financial systems and open blockchain networks, so customers around the world can access the same underlying assets through a more continuous, programmable, and liquid market structure.”

“For international customers, that means broader access where traditional distribution and brokerage infrastructure does not reach efficiently today. For U.S. customers, it will create the foundation for greater collateral efficiency, faster capital mobility, and more productive use of assets across trading, lending, and financing workflows.”

“Over time, the system becomes more efficient because tokenization, liquidity, and first-party applications can operate as part of one integrated architecture. That is why our partnership with Nasdaq matters: not only to tokenize equities, but to build the liquidity layer and customer-facing applications that allow tokenized stocks to function as a more global, capital-efficient market structure."

As tokenized assets continue to expand across blockchain ecosystems, we aim to establish infrastructure with partners, enabling regulated securities to interact with decentralized markets in a secure and interoperable way.

Nasdaq expects the Nasdaq Equity Tokens and related distributed ledger technology (DLT)-based services to become operational beginning in Q1 2027.