Payward plans tokenized IPO access as SpaceX, Anthropic near $2.7T debut

Payward, the parent of crypto exchange Kraken, plans to let retail investors buy into US-listed IPOs at the offering price through tokenized shares, the company said Wednesday.

"Tokenization can make assets easier to access, transfer and trade across jurisdictions," a Payward spokesperson said.

The xStocks framework has processed more than $30 billion in transaction volume and over $6 billion in onchain settlements across more than 125,000 holders, the company said. Under the model, investors submit non-binding indications of interest before an IPO, with Payward aggregating demand across participating exchanges and working with underwriting syndicates to secure allocations.

The launch comes as investors await a wave of high-profile public offerings. SpaceX filed its S-1 on May 20 targeting a valuation of $1.75 trillion to $2 trillion, while Anthropic confidentially filed for an IPO on June 1 at a $965 billion valuation, according to regulatory filings and press reports. OpenAI is preparing a fall debut.

The first tokenized IPO offerings are expected to become available through Kraken and other xStocks Alliance members in the coming weeks, Payward said. The firm will only offer IPOs where it has secured allocations for investors, a spokesperson told CoinDesk.

Once a company lists, shares would be tokenized, backed one-for-one by the underlying stock held by a regulated custodian and distributed to investors through participating platforms. The model aims to use blockchain-based tokenization to broaden access to capital markets that have traditionally been dominated by institutional investors, private banks and wealthy clients.

The initiative is part of a broader push into tokenization, one of the fastest-growing areas of digital assets. The sector has expanded beyond cryptocurrencies into Treasury funds, private credit, money-market products and, increasingly, equities. The SEC formally approved Nasdaq's rule change on March 18 to support trading of stocks in the Russell 1000 Index in blockchain-based digital token form, followed by NYSE approval on April 17, though retail access remains limited.

For Kraken, the move comes during a critical stretch. The exchange paused its own IPO plans in March 2026 as weak crypto market conditions weighed on valuations, with parent Payward valued at $13.3 billion in a secondary share sale to Deutsche Börse in April. Kraken launched Kraken Prop, a retail evaluation-based proprietary trading program, on May 27, and has spent roughly $2 billion on acquisitions including NinjaTrader and Bitnomial to build out an "any asset, anytime" trading platform.

Pre-IPO investing carries risks. Allocations are often oversubscribed and not guaranteed, offering prices can change during the book-building process, and newly listed stocks frequently experience sharp price swings once public trading begins.

This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute investment advice.