On Wednesday, cryptocurrency exchange Kraken and tokenization platform Backed Finance revealed the expansion of xStocks, a tokenized stock offering, to the Tron blockchain. This development aligns with the increasing trend of real-world asset (RWA) tokenization, especially in stocks.
As stated in the announcement, Backed will issue the stocks as TRC-20 tokens. Kraken and Backed had previously introduced xStocks on Solana and BNB Chain. Launched in late June 2025, xStocks has experienced over $2.5 billion in combined DEX and CEX volume, as per a Kraken blog post.
“The enthusiasm in the RWA sector reflects a growing institutional confidence in the utility of layer 1 blockchain networks like Tron,” a TronDAO representative told Cointelegraph. “As institutional blockchain continues to advance, we are committed to building the necessary infrastructure to support long-term adoption and tangible financial applications.”
As reported by DefiLlama, the Tron blockchain has a $6.2 billion total value locked (TVL) as of Tuesday, ranking it fifth overall among all blockchains. TVL is a key metric used to assess the health of a decentralized finance ecosystem. However, Tron’s TVL was $7.3 billion on Jan. 1, 2025, indicating a 15% drop this year.
Tron TVL over time. Source: DefiLlama
Ethereum continues to lead DeFi activities, with a TVL of $89 billion, representing 60% of the total TVL across blockchains. On July 29, investment and trading platform eToro announced plans to tokenize 100 popular US stocks on Ethereum. On June 30, Robinhood introduced a layer-2 blockchain for trading US assets in Europe.
Related: DeFi surges with tokenized stocks, but user activity shifts to NFTs: Report
RWA tokenization accelerates in 2025
RWA tokenization has gained traction in 2025 as institutions increasingly consider placing assets such as US Treasurys, private credit, and stocks on the blockchain. According to RWA.xyz, the RWA tokenization market has expanded to $26.4 billion as of last Tuesday, up from $15.6 billion on Jan. 1, 2025.
A Binance Research report shared with Cointelegraph indicates that tokenized stocks are approaching “a significant inflection point” and are experiencing a growth rate akin to the early stages of decentralized finance.
Nansen CEO Alex Svanevik commented in an opinion piece for Cointelegraph that the real opportunity with tokenized stocks lies not in the public market, but rather in the private sector, where there are more pronounced inefficiencies.
Magazine: TradFi is developing Ethereum L2s to tokenize trillions in RWAs — Inside story
