Payward, the parent company of the cryptocurrency exchange Kraken, has announced plans to enable retail investors to participate in U.S.-listed IPOs at the same price as institutional investors via tokenized shares. This offering is set to allow eligible investors to buy shares at the IPO price rather than waiting for public trading to begin.
Payward aims to give retail investors access to IPO shares at the offering price through tokenized equities.
By Krisztian Sandor | Edited by Stephen Alpher Jun 3, 2026, 1:02 p.m. 2 min read
What to know:
- Payward plans to let retail investors access IPO shares at the same offering price as institutional investors through tokenized equities.
- The xStocks framework will aggregate IPO allocations across participating platforms, with tokenized shares backed one-for-one by underlying stock held by a regulated custodian.
- This initiative aims to enhance access to capital markets using blockchain-based tokenization.
In this article
Payward is working to bring a highly sought-after opportunity in Wall Street to crypto investors by allowing participation in IPOs at the same price as institutional players. The company revealed that it would soon enable customers of Kraken and its xStocks Alliance partners to engage in U.S.-listed initial public offerings through tokenized shares. This new offering will allow eligible investors to receive allocations at the IPO price instead of buying shares after they begin trading publicly.
The initial tokenized IPO offerings are anticipated to be available through Kraken and other members of the xStocks Alliance within the next few weeks, according to the firm.
This initiative arrives as investors look forward to a series of notable public offerings, with companies like SpaceX and AI firms Anthropic and OpenAI viewed as strong IPO candidates in the near future, increasing the demand for access to deals typically dominated by institutional investors and affluent clients.
In Payward's approach, investors will submit non-binding indications of interest prior to an IPO. The company will then consolidate demand across participating exchanges and collaborate with underwriting syndicates to secure allocations. After a company goes public, shares will be tokenized and backed one-for-one by the underlying stock held by a regulated custodian, then distributed to investors via the participating platforms.
This initiative is part of a larger effort to utilize blockchain technology to broaden access to capital markets.
Tokenization, which involves creating blockchain-based representations of traditional assets, is rapidly growing beyond cryptocurrencies into areas like Treasury funds, private credit, money-market products, and increasingly, equities.
Advocates of tokenization argue it simplifies the accessibility, transfer, and trading of assets across various jurisdictions. For equities, this technology could eliminate some of the geographic and brokerage limitations that have historically restricted access to IPOs and foreign-listed stocks.
However, investing before an IPO comes with its own risks. IPO allocations can be oversubscribed and are not guaranteed, the offering prices may fluctuate during the book-building phase, and stocks often face significant price volatility once they begin trading publicly.
A spokesperson from Payward informed CoinDesk that the company will only offer IPOs for which allocations have been secured for investors.
Currently, Payward's xStocks framework supports tokenized equities that are backed one-for-one by shares held in custody. The company noted that this framework has processed over $30 billion in transaction volume and more than $6 billion in on-chain settlements across over 125,000 holders.
Tokenization Kraken