Cryptocurrency exchange Kraken says it plans to offer retail investors access to its upcoming initial public offering (IPO).
Kraken says that individual investors will be able to access to its stock at the IPO price through a collaboration it has struck with the xStocks tokenized equities framework.
Customers of Kraken will be able to register their interest in the IPO before the company goes public, then receive tokenized shares at the IPO price on the day of the market debut.
IPO access at the offering price is typically reserved for institutional investors, private banking clients, and underwriters of the deal. Retail investor access is rare.
Kraken says shares sold to retail investors will be tokenized and backed 1:1 by the company’s actual stock that’s held in custody by a regulated entity.
xStocks will manage the tokenization process of Kraken’s stock, said the companies in a statement.
xStocks’ tokens are interoperable across blockchains, including Ethereum (CRYPTO: $ETH) and Solana (CRYPTO: $SOL).
xStocks has emerged as a leading venue for tokenized stocks, having surpassed $30 billion U.S. in transaction volumes, with more than $6 billion U.S. settled onchain.
Kraken is expected to go public on the Nasdaq (NASDAQ: $NDAQ) exchange in this year’s second half, although an exact date for the IPO has not yet been announced publicly.
