Nasdaq and Kraken partner to launch equity token gateway to increase market liquidity

Nasdaq announced plans to launch an equity token design framework in partnership with Payward, Kraken's parent company, to tokenize public company shares. This initiative aims to create a gateway connecting permissioned and permissionless markets for these tokenized equities, ensuring legal integrity, investor protection, and issuer control. Nasdaq's President, Tal Cohen, stated the issuer-sponsored approach is designed to empower public companies and broaden global participation in US equity markets by introducing programmable features for shareholder interaction, such as proxy voting. Kraken's co-CEO, Arjun Sethi, highlighted that tokenized equities will enhance market infrastructure by ensuring interoperability between traditional finance and blockchain networks, benefiting international customers with expanded access and US customers with improved collateral efficiency. The exchange expects the program, which aligns with SEC guidance on tokenized securities, to become operational with distributed ledger technology services available starting in the first half of 2027.

(Source：Crypto Briefing)