LSE and Payward to Tokenise Top 100 Stocks as xStocks

The London Stock Exchange will work with Payward, the owner of KrakenFX, to tokenise its 100 largest listed companies as xStocks and to explore on‑chain settlement and asset servicing. The collaboration is at an exploratory stage and aims to link capital markets with blockchain systems. The exchange plans, subject to regulatory approval, to list xStocks on a venue called LSE 24 in 2027.

xStocks are 1:1 backed tokenised representations of publicly traded shares. The project will examine how these tokens could move between centralised trading venues, self‑custodied wallets and blockchain‑based applications, and what legal and custody arrangements are needed to preserve investor rights when ownership is recorded on a ledger.

Under the agreement, LSEG and Payward will assess whether LSEG’s Digital Securities Depository (LSEG DSD) can support settlement and ongoing asset servicing for tokenised shares. The firms will study technical and operational arrangements required to record traditional equity ownership on public and private blockchains and to enable interoperability with on‑chain services.

Any trading or operational rollout will require regulatory clearance and further engagement with market participants. The initiative will consider how existing rules for clearance, settlement and corporate actions would apply to tokenised instruments and what regulatory or infrastructure changes would be necessary.

According to Julia Hoggett, chief executive of LSEG: “Tokenisation has the potential to change how investors access, and how issuers use, financial markets, but it must develop in a way that preserves the trust, rights and role of regulated markets. By working with Payward, and continuing to collaborate across the market infrastructure ecosystem, we are exploring how issuers and investors can benefit from new forms of access while maintaining the standards that underpin public markets.”