Payward, the parent company of Kraken, is joining hands with fintech infrastructure company GTN to expand tokenised stock service xStock worldwide.

The two companies plan to start with the tokenisation of Hong Kong stocks and then expand into overseas markets such as Britain, Europe and South Korea. They are also leaving open the possibility of tokenising other asset classes.

Mark Greenberg (마크 그린버그), Payward Services' global head, said, "For decades, we have taken for granted that capital markets are fragmented by country, currency and trading hours." He said, "This is a legacy financial infrastructure problem. The largest asset class not yet tokenised is the rest of the world, and the partnership with GTN is meant to change that."

Under the partnership, GTN will provide infrastructure for underlying trade execution, custody and record management in more than 90 markets. GTN is also acquiring the licences required in each market.

Payward acquired xStock last December. The service, which tokenises stocks and ETFs and holds the underlying securities to maintain one-to-one collateralisation between tokens and shares, has grown into one of the largest providers of tokenised stocks. Payward said it has tokenised more than 500 U.S. assets and has more than 200,000 holders.