London Stock Exchange Group will tokenize the UK’s 100 largest listed companies with Kraken parent Payward, the two firms said Sept. 1. Residents of the UK cannot buy the resulting tokens.
The Big Picture
- Payward will issue the 100 biggest London-listed companies as xStocks, tokens backed 1:1 by the underlying shares.
- xStocks reach investors in more than 110 countries, but UK and US residents are excluded.
- London Stock Exchange plans to list xStocks on LSE 24, its overnight venue, in 2027 subject to regulatory approval.
- xStocks have traded more than $40 billion since launch and now count over 200,000 holders.
- LSEG shares fell 2% in early London trading after the announcement.
London’s 100 biggest shares go onchain
Payward will mint the top 100 London-listed stocks as xStocks, tradable around the clock on Kraken, on self-custody wallets and across the xStocks Alliance platforms. The company expects the first London-listed tokens in the coming weeks. UK and US residents are blocked.
The exclusion cuts against the stated purpose. LSEG is widening access to British blue chips across roughly 110 other jurisdictions while the domestic investors who already hold those shares get no new route. Neither company has said whether that changes.
Julia Hoggett, CEO of London Stock Exchange and head of digital and securities markets at LSEG, said the firms are exploring “how issuers and investors can benefit from new forms of access while maintaining the standards that underpin public markets.“
KRAKEN PARENT PAYWARD × LONDON STOCK EXCHANGE
— Riz (@SovereignRiz) September 1, 2026
But that isn't actually the most interesting part.
The London Stock Exchange announced a partnership with Kraken's parent Payward to develop tokenized UK equity markets.
Payward says the 100 largest London-listed companies are… pic.twitter.com/kWSPzdL6j5
LSE 24 carries the regulatory risk
LSE 24 is where the tokens are supposed to become a regulated instrument, and it does not exist yet. LSEG said in July the overnight venue will run 17:00 to 07:50 Monday to Friday with a 30-minute processing pause, opening to client testing by the end of 2026 and to exchange traded products in the first half of 2027. The xStocks listing depends on an approval nobody has granted.
The UK rulebook is unsettled too. The Financial Conduct Authority and the Bank of England ran a joint call for input on tokenization that closed July 3, scoped explicitly to wholesale markets: banks, asset managers and infrastructure providers, not retail buyers.
Rival exchanges already bought their seats
Traditional venues spent the past year buying into the same trade.
- Deutsche Boerse took a $200 million stake in Kraken in April, a 1.5% fully diluted holding tied to a partnership covering tokenized markets and institutional liquidity.
- Nasdaq agreed in August to acquire LeveL Markets, the third-largest US alternative trading system by volume.
- Robinhood has launched tokenized stock products in the European Union.
- Coinbase has moved into the category with one-to-one stock tokens on Base.
CoinLaw’s Takeaway
This deal turns on distribution. Payward already moves the volume, with roughly $20 billion of that total settled onchain, and LSEG supplies the issuer relationships and the regulated venue a token wrapper cannot manufacture. What the deal does not supply is a legal path for a British investor to buy a tokenized British share.
Three questions stay open. Will the FCA approve xStocks listings on LSE 24 before the 2027 target? Will UK residents get access, and under what permission? And do holders receive the shareholder rights attached to the underlying stock, which both firms describe as an aim for future native issuance rather than a feature of xStocks today?
UK readers already holding tokenized equities bought through offshore venues should check that platform’s residency terms, because tokens held outside the UK perimeter sit outside FCA protections.
