Nasdaq, Payward Set 2027 Tokenized Stocks Plan - March 2026

Nasdaq said on March 9 it will work with Payward, the parent company of Kraken, to build infrastructure for tokenized stocks and ETFs aimed at customers outside the US, mainly in Europe. The project is targeting a first-half 2027 launch, subject to regulatory approvals, and sits alongside a separate settlement partnership with Boerse Stuttgart Group.

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Context

The March 9 announcement builds on Nasdaq’s earlier work with US regulators on tokenized securities. Bloomberg and Finance Magnates reported that Nasdaq had submitted a proposal to the SEC in September 2025 to allow tokenized shares to trade alongside traditional shares, with settlement routed through the Depository Trust system so both versions remain interchangeable.

Kraken was also already engaged with regulators before this deal was announced. On August 25, 2025, Kraken met with the SEC’s Crypto Task Force to present a tokenized trading system architecture and seek regulatory clarity for tokenized securities platforms.

A separate filing also appears to have been made on March 9, 2026. Stocktwits, citing The Wall Street Journal, reported that Nasdaq filed a new proposal that day, which should be treated as distinct from the September 2025 submission.

Details

The core structure matters. Nasdaq is not issuing tokenized stocks itself; the model described in the reviewed sources puts public company issuers at the center, while Payward’s xStocks framework provides the tokenization layer and Payward Services handles KYC and AML onboarding.

The deal also extends beyond a simple exchange partnership. Finance Magnates reported that brokerage execution and custody for the underlying stocks and ETFs will be provided by Alpaca, while Nasdaq separately said it will work with Boerse Stuttgart Group’s Seturion platform to connect European trading venues to tokenized securities settlement infrastructure.

Nasdaq President Tal Cohen framed the effort around issuer control rather than crypto-native distribution alone. “Most of tokenization has happened without the issuers in mind. Our effort is focused on the issuer.” - Tal Cohen, President at Nasdaq, March 9, 2026, The Wall Street Journal.

The reviewed sources did not name a specific blockchain for the Nasdaq-Payward initiative. They also did not disclose financial terms for the partnership, so any claim about deal value or chain selection would go beyond the confirmed reporting.

Impact

The project matters because it aims to connect blockchain-based distribution with existing exchange and post-trade infrastructure. If regulators approve the design, tokenized and traditional shares would be able to function as interchangeable versions of the same asset instead of trading as separate products across disconnected venues.

The announcement also gives European market structure a larger role in tokenized securities. Nasdaq’s separate Seturion partnership points to a model where European trading venues can connect to dedicated settlement infrastructure rather than relying only on offshore crypto platforms.

There was only limited immediate public market reaction in the reviewed research. The Wall Street Journal reported that Nasdaq shares were down 0.86% on the day of the announcement.​

Next Steps

The main next step is regulatory review. Reuters, Bloomberg, and Finance Magnates all tied the commercial rollout to approvals, with the current target set for the first half of 2027 rather than an immediate launch.

Several operating details are still undisclosed. As of March 9, the reviewed sources had not confirmed the blockchain stack, the initial list of tokenized equities or ETFs, or public technical documentation showing how exchange settlement will connect to tokenized distribution.

There is also no public onchain footprint yet for the new Nasdaq-Payward initiative in the confirmed research set. None of the reviewed sources included block explorer links, Dune dashboards, DeFi Llama pages, or transaction hashes tied specifically to this partnership.

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P.S. This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute investment advice. Always conduct your own research and make independent decisions.