ST HELIER, Jersey — July 28, 2026 — Payward Services, the B2B infrastructure platform from Payward, the company behind global crypto platform Kraken, today opened pre-IPO access to Jersey Mike's Subs, the fast-casual sandwich chain preparing to list on the New York Stock Exchange. For the first time, eligible Kraken customers in the United States can participate in Pre-IPO Access, receiving real shares at the offering price, plus any associated fees, through a traditional securities offering powered by Payward. Eligible customers in over 110 countries across the world can also register a non-binding indication of interest to take part in the IPO process via xStocks ahead of the public listing. Jersey Mike's Subs is the third offering in Payward Services' Pre-IPO Access pipeline, following SpaceX and Bending Spoons earlier this year.

For most retail investors, taking part in an IPO has been out of reach, with access gated by wealth or geography. They can usually only buy once a stock is trading openly, often well above the price institutions paid for their allocations. Payward Services built Pre-IPO Access to change that, opening primary-market access to a global audience through Payward's xStocks tokenized equities framework, and now, for US customers of Kraken, through Kraken Securities.

Alongside the xStocks route, Payward Services has been working for months to unlock a second pathway for eligible Kraken customers in the United States. Through Kraken Securities, US customers can register interest in Jersey Mike's Subs directly, as traditional book-entry shares at the offering price, with no token involved. Most US retail brokers do not give everyday customers access to IPO shares at the offering price at all, with allocations typically reserved for institutional or high-net-worth clients. For Kraken's US customers, this is a new opportunity, and the first time a Payward Services Pre-IPO Access offering has been open to the United States.

For non-US investors, the indication of interest window opens on Kraken and other supporting xStocks Alliance partners for their customers to access tokenized shares of Jersey Mike's Subs. During the window before public listing, customers can indicate how much they wish to buy within Jersey Mike's Subs' indicated price range. Funds associated with non-binding indications of interest are reserved, not charged, until the final allocation is secured and ready for distribution. Payward Services then aggregates demand across xStocks Alliance partners and works with an underwriting syndicate to secure an allocation of the underlying shares, which back the tokenized Jersey Mike's Subs asset (JMKEx) 1:1 and are distributed on the day of public listing. All allocation decisions rest with Jersey Mike's Subs and its underwriters, and pre-IPO access allocation is not guaranteed by Payward Services.

Every xStock is backed 1:1 by the underlying share and held in custody by a regulated entity. Unlike traditional brokerage accounts, xStocks assets can move with the investor across participating xStocks Alliance platforms, be transferred onchain, and integrate with compatible DeFi applications. Since launching with initially tokenized US equities, xStocks has broadened to offer more than 500 tokenized assets spanning equities, IPOs and other asset classes, offering the widest range of any tokenized asset framework, and now powers over $35 billion in transaction volume across multiple blockchain ecosystems, with nearly 200,000 holders across the world.

"One IPO at a time we're dismantling an outdated public-listing process. For decades the best entry prices went to institutions and a small circle of privileged investors, while everyone else waited for the opening bell. We built Pre-IPO Access to break that model, unlocking opportunities for retail investors to invest in the brands and businesses they know before they become public companies," said Mark Greenberg, Payward's Chief Commercial Officer and Global Head of Payward Services. "SpaceX and Bending Spoons proved the demand for Pre-IPO Access is real. We're now building a global pipeline of IPO opportunities because we believe broader access shouldn't be the exception, it should be the universal investing standard."

Jersey Mike's Subs Inc. is an American fast-casual sandwich company. Acquired by private equity firm Blackstone in 2025, it runs an asset-light model that is roughly 99% franchised, with more than 3,300 stores across the US and Canada and expansion underway into the U.K. and Ireland. The company has filed to go public on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker JMKE.

Payward Services will continue opening more Pre-IPO Access offerings to xStocks Alliance members in the coming months. Geographic restrictions apply.

Payward Services is the B2B infrastructure platform built on 15 years of operating Kraken, one of the world's largest crypto platforms. Through a single integration, partners can access crypto and tokenized equity trading, fiat and stablecoin payments, yield, lending, prediction markets and derivatives. Fintechs, banks, brokerages, payment providers, exchanges, consumer tech platforms and asset managers can use Payward Services to offer digital assets to their clients without building the stack themselves.

Liquidity, custody, payments, compliance, risk and settlement are integrated by design, replacing fragmented multi-vendor stacks with a single regulated foundation. Partners build on the same infrastructure that powers Payward's family of products, deployed as modular services they can scale alongside their own.

For more information, visit https://www.payward.com/payward-services.

About xStocks
xStocks is the industry benchmark for tokenized real world assets, bringing publicly listed equities and other assets onchain through fully collateralized, 1:1-backed tokens. Powered by Payward's digital asset infrastructure, xStocks places traditional assets on blockchain rails, expanding access to global capital markets with extended availability, global reach, and digital-native settlement. Starting with tokenized US equities, xStocks now spans markets across the US, Europe and Asia.

Designed for interoperability, xStocks move seamlessly between centralized exchanges, self-custodied wallets, and onchain applications, unlocking new utility across trading, collateralization, and decentralized finance. Since launching in June 2025, xStocks has grown to power billions of dollars in transaction volume across multiple blockchain ecosystems, anchoring a rapidly expanding global network shaping the future of tokenized markets.

For more information, visit https://xstocks.fi.

Contacts
Lauren Post
[email protected]