On Wednesday, cryptocurrency exchange Kraken and tokenization platform Backed Finance revealed their plan to expand xStocks, a tokenized stock product, to the Tron blockchain. This decision coincides with the rising trend of real-world asset (RWA) tokenization, particularly in the stock market.
The announcement stated that Backed will issue the stocks as TRC-20 tokens. Previously, Kraken and Backed introduced xStocks on Solana and BNB Chain. Since its launch in late June 2025, xStocks has achieved over $2.5 billion in total volume across DEX and CEX platforms, as per a blog post from Kraken.
“The growing enthusiasm for the RWA sector signals increased institutional confidence in the utility of layer 1 blockchain networks like Tron,” remarked a TronDAO representative to Cointelegraph. “As institutional blockchain continues to progress, our focus will remain on developing the infrastructure necessary for long-term adoption and real-world financial applications.”
According to DefiLlama, the Tron blockchain has a total value locked (TVL) of $6.2 billion as of Tuesday, ranking it fifth among all blockchains. TVL is a widely recognized metric for assessing the vitality of a decentralized finance ecosystem. However, Tron’s TVL was $7.3 billion on January 1, 2025, indicating a decline of 15% this year.
Ethereum continues to lead in DeFi activity with a TVL of $89 billion, accounting for 60% of the TVL across all blockchains. On July 29, investing platform eToro announced its intention to tokenize 100 of the most popular US stocks on Ethereum. Meanwhile, on June 30, Robinhood unveiled a layer-2 blockchain for trading US assets in Europe.
Related: DeFi soars with tokenized stocks, but user activity shifts to NFTs: Report
RWA tokenization gains traction in 2025
RWA tokenization has accelerated in 2025 as institutions begin to embrace putting assets like US Treasurys, private credit, and stocks on the blockchain. According to RWA.xyz, the RWA tokenization market expanded to $26.4 billion as of last Tuesday, up from $15.6 billion on January 1, 2025.
A Binance Research report shared with Cointelegraph indicates that tokenized stocks are approaching “a major inflection point,” experiencing a growth rate akin to the early stages of decentralized finance.
Nansen CEO Alex Svanevik expressed in a Cointelegraph opinion piece that the true potential of tokenized stocks lies beyond the public market, focusing instead on the private market where there are greater inefficiencies.
Magazine: TradFi is building Ethereum L2s to tokenize trillions in RWAs — Inside story
