London Stock Exchange and Payward to Tokenize 100 UK Blue Chips

The London Stock Exchange has agreed to put the 100 largest UK-listed companies on a blockchain. Its partner is Payward, the company behind the Kraken exchange, and the tokens will be issued as xStocks, each backed one for one by the underlying share. LSE plans to list them and support trading on LSE 24, its new extended-hours venue, once regulators approve. No account names the regulator or gives a decision date. The tokens are not available to investors in the UK.

What the token carries

An xStock is a claim on the economics of a share rather than the share itself. Finance Magnates, citing Kraken's own documentation, reported that holders get economic exposure and reinvested dividends but no voting rights. That distinction decides who the product is for. It tracks the money and leaves the ownership rights behind. Payward already runs the format at scale, and Kraken lets traders post tokenized stocks as collateral.

The numbers behind xStocks

xStocks launched in June 2025 and Payward bought the business that December. Since launch the tokens have done more than $40 billion in total volume, of which close to $20 billion settled onchain, across more than 200,000 holders in over 110 countries. Set against the wider market, the position is smaller than the turnover suggests. The Block put all tokenized equities in existence at $2.53 billion, with xStocks at $606.6 million and Ondo the largest issuer at $840.4 million. The most heavily traded product is not the largest one outstanding. The agreement lands into sharply rising transfer volume in tokenized stocks.

Two descriptions of one venue

What LSE 24 is depends on who is describing it. The Block gives specific hours, Monday to Friday from 5:00 p.m. to 7:50 a.m., with a 30-minute processing break at the end of the day. Finance Magnates calls it close to 24 hours a day from Monday to Friday, and stresses that it is not a seven-day market. The Crypto Times calls it a 24-hour trading venue. An overnight session and a near-continuous weekday market are different products, and the accounts do not reconcile. Timing splits the same way. Finance Magnates sets out a schedule of products within weeks, client testing on LSE 24 by the end of 2026 and exchange-traded products in the first half of 2027; The Block and crypto.news give no launch date at all.

Who cannot buy them

The gap at the centre of the announcement is the home market. xStocks are open to eligible investors in more than 110 countries, and closed to the UK investors whose exchange is doing the listing. Not one of the four accounts reviewed explains why. Payward's co-chief executive framed the deal as the end of an old argument.

"For years, the assumption was that crypto and traditional finance were on a collision course, and one of them would have to lose," Arjun Sethi said.

Julia Hoggett, chief executive of London Stock Exchange plc, put it more carefully, saying tokenization must develop in a way that preserves the trust, rights and role of regulated markets. Neither said which of the 100 companies would be tokenized first. Until a regulator is named and a date attaches to it, the listing is an intention with a share count on it.