Crypto exchange Kraken has started accepting select tokenized stocks and exchange-traded funds (ETFs) as collateral for futures and margin trading. The change is designed to let eligible users open leveraged positions without first selling the tokenized assets they already hold.

Kraken’s initial rollout supports 10 tokenized instruments, including tokenized shares of major US technology companies such as Apple, Nvidia, and Tesla, alongside tokenized ETF and strategy-related products such as Strategy, the SPDR S&P 500 ETF, and Invesco QQQ Trust.

Key takeaways

• Kraken will accept tokenized stocks and ETFs as margin and futures collateral for eligible clients.
• The initial list includes Apple, Nvidia, Tesla, Strategy, the SPDR S&P 500 ETF, and Invesco QQQ Trust, among others.
• Assets receive collateral haircuts that reduce their effective lending value, with broad ETFs discounted by 10% and certain higher-volatility names discounted by 30%.
• Collateral limits vary by asset type, including up to $1 million for broad-market ETFs and up to $250,000 for most individual stocks.
• Support is limited to eligible clients outside the United States, with different collateral rules depending on the jurisdiction.

How Kraken will treat tokenized collateral

Kraken says each eligible tokenized asset is subject to a collateral “haircut,” a risk-based adjustment that lowers the amount it can contribute to a user’s borrowing power. In the exchange’s rollout, broad-market ETFs receive the lowest haircut at 10%, while more volatile stocks—including Strategy and Robinhood—are discounted by 30%.

Alongside haircuts, Kraken also sets collateral caps per asset. Broad-market ETFs are limited to up to $1 million in collateral value, while most individual stocks are capped at $250,000. Kraken also applies lower caps to tokenized gold and Circle shares, which it places at $100,000.

Importantly for active traders, Kraken notes that both collateral limits and haircuts will be reviewed periodically and remain subject to change.

Which tokenized assets are included at launch

The feature initially covers 10 tokenized stocks and ETFs. The list named by Kraken includes tokenized Apple, Nvidia, and Tesla, as well as tokenized Strategy. It also includes tokenized broad-market exposure such as the SPDR S&P 500 ETF and Invesco QQQ Trust.

Beyond these examples, Kraken’s announcement indicates that some higher-volatility holdings are assigned larger discounts. In particular, the exchange cited a 30% haircut for Strategy and Robinhood, illustrating how collateral treatment may differ materially even within single-stock collateral categories.

Regional access and venue-specific support

Kraken restricts the service to eligible clients outside the United States. The exchange further differentiates where each use case is available.

Kraken states that tokenized stocks can be used as collateral for futures trading in the European Economic Area. For margin trading, Kraken says tokenized collateral support applies in other eligible jurisdictions outside the EEA.

For users, this means they may need to check both their residency and the specific product they intend to trade—futures collateral rules may not mirror margin collateral rules across regions.

Why this fits the push for tokenized assets in mainstream finance

Kraken’s move aligns with a broader industry trend: converting traditionally held financial instruments into tokenized formats that can plug into crypto-native trading, settlement, and financing workflows. In recent months, multiple market participants have focused on expanding the utility of tokenized real-world assets (RWAs) beyond simple custody or spot trading—particularly by making them eligible collateral in regulated-style market infrastructure.

Earlier this year, Franklin Templeton and Binance launched a program that allows institutions to use tokenized money market fund shares as trading collateral while the underlying assets remain in regulated off-exchange custody. BlackRock’s tokenized US Treasury fund, BUIDL, is also described as accepted collateral on Binance, as well as on Crypto.com and Deribit.

Other examples highlight how tokenization is being tested at the level of market operations. Earlier this week, Tradeweb reportedly executed what it said was the first real-time purchase and sale of a tokenized US Treasury settled against tokenized cash on the Canton Network. Taken together, these developments point to experimentation not just with new assets, but with how those assets move through financial plumbing.

RWA.xyz estimates that tokenized real-world assets have grown to roughly $32.6 billion in distributed value, while tokenized stocks rose to about $2 billion from roughly $381 million a year earlier. While these totals don’t measure trading volume alone, they offer a sense of how much tokenized equity exposure has expanded over the past year—making exchanges’ collateral policies more consequential as tokenized products multiply.

What to watch next

With Kraken saying haircuts and collateral limits will be reviewed over time, traders using tokenized stock and ETF collateral should monitor future updates to the eligible asset list and any changes to discount rates. The next key question is whether Kraken expands eligibility beyond the initial 10 instruments and how collateral treatment evolves as tokenized stock and ETF liquidity develops.

Kraken has started accepting select tokenized stocks and exchange-traded funds (ETFs) as collateral for futures and margin trading, enabling eligible customers to take leveraged positions without first selling those tokenized holdings.

The feature initially covers 10 tokenized instruments, including major single-name equities such as Apple, Nvidia, and Tesla, as well as tokenized ETFs including Strategy, the SPDR S&P 500 ETF, and Invesco QQQ Trust.

Key takeaways

• Kraken now accepts specific tokenized stocks and ETFs as collateral for futures and margin trading, reducing the need to liquidate existing positions.
• Eligible assets receive risk-based collateral “haircuts,” with broad-market ETFs discounted less than more volatile stocks.
• Collateral limits apply per asset class, with broad-market ETFs capped at up to $1 million in collateral value.
• Access is limited to eligible clients outside the United States; futures collateral in the European Economic Area and margin collateral in other eligible jurisdictions.

How Kraken’s collateral framework works

According to Kraken, each supported tokenized stock or ETF is assigned a collateral haircut, which reduces the lending value of posted collateral depending on perceived risk. Broad-market ETFs receive the lowest discount at 10%, while certain more volatile holdings are discounted more heavily—Kraken states that Strategy and Robinhood are discounted by 30%.

In addition to haircuts, Kraken also set collateral limits for each asset. Broad-market ETFs can be posted up to $1 million in collateral value. Most individual stocks have a limit of $250,000. Tokenized gold and Circle shares are capped at $100,000.

The exchange emphasized that both the haircut percentages and the collateral limits are subject to periodic review and may change over time.

Scope: which tokenized assets are included

Kraken’s initial rollout supports 10 tokenized stocks and ETFs. The list includes widely followed names such as Apple, Nvidia, and Tesla, along with Strategy.

For broad market exposure, the exchange includes tokenized ETF products such as the SPDR S&P 500 ETF and Invesco QQQ Trust. The collateral program also extends to tokenized gold and Circle shares, though these carry different collateral caps compared with the equity and ETF set.

Geographic limits and trading use cases

Kraken said the collateral support is available only to eligible clients outside the United States. Tokenized stocks can be used as collateral for futures trading in the European Economic Area.

Margin collateral support is available in other eligible jurisdictions outside the European Economic Area. Kraken did not indicate that the tokenized-collateral feature is generally available worldwide, so customers should confirm eligibility in their region before planning trades around it.

Why this matters for tokenized markets

Kraken’s decision aligns with a broader push to expand the real-world utility of tokenized assets beyond simple trading. The core investor benefit is straightforward: if tokenized securities can be posted as collateral, they can help users access leverage and financing-style trades without triggering a sale that may be subject to liquidity constraints or other execution considerations.

It also fits into a wider pattern of exchange and market infrastructure developments aimed at making tokenized securities usable across more parts of capital markets—particularly as collateral, settlement components, and building blocks for structured lending.

For example, earlier this year, Cointelegraph reported that Franklin Templeton and Binance launched a program allowing institutions to use tokenized money market fund shares as trading collateral while the underlying assets remained in regulated off-exchange custody. Separately, BlackRock’s tokenized US Treasury fund, BUIDL, has been accepted as trading collateral on platforms including Binance, Crypto.com, and Deribit, reflecting growing interoperability for tokenized government and cash-like instruments.

Other market plumbing has also been advancing. Cointelegraph noted that Tradeweb executed what it described as a first real-time purchase and sale of a tokenized US Treasury settled against tokenized cash on the Canton Network. While those developments differ in mechanism from Kraken’s collateral haircuts, they collectively point to a trend: tokenized assets are increasingly being integrated into the operational flows that support trading and financing.

Market growth signals: tokenized stocks remain a fast-rising segment

Data compiled by RWA.xyz suggests tokenized real-world assets have grown to roughly $32.6 billion in distributed value. Within that broader total, tokenized stocks reportedly increased to about $2 billion from approximately $381 million a year earlier.

That growth backdrop helps explain why exchanges are moving to make tokenized holdings more functional. As the number and variety of tokenized securities increase, collateral acceptance can become a competitive differentiator—especially for users who want to maintain exposure while accessing leverage or margin capacity.

For readers tracking the sector, RWA.xyz maintains an accessible overview of tokenized stock distribution, including categories under RWA.xyz stocks.

Going forward, investors and traders should watch for Kraken’s next rounds of updates: whether additional tokenized equities and ETFs are added, how haircuts and collateral caps change with volatility and market conditions, and how the exchange expands availability across jurisdictions outside the United States.

NYLIM was the latest entrant to the list of asset management giants making moves in tokenization, teaming up with Centrifuge (CFG) to bring one of its high-yield corporate bond strategies onchain.

For NYLIM, tokenization is less about launching blockchain versions of existing funds than improving how portfolios are assembled.

Sy said customized investment strategies often combine ETFs, bonds, private credit and other assets, creating operational complexity that makes personalization difficult to scale.

“The end goal is to embed the customization within the asset itself, rather than the customization sitting around the operations around the different assets,” he said.

Tokenization could also streamline transfer agency, settlement and other back-office processes, reducing costs that ultimately benefit investors.

“If you can bring that down by 10% or 20%, that’s a better outcome for our clients,” Sy said.

DeFi awaits

Sy said stablecoins have become the first practical bridge bringing traditional financial institutions onchain.

The stablecoin market has grown to over $300 billion, and its increasingly used for cross-brder payments

As banks, payment firms and fintech companies adopt stablecoins for cross-border payments and treasury management, many will eventually look for institutional-grade tokenized assets where those balances can earn yield instead of remaining in cash.

“Stablecoins were probably one of the biggest unlocks in the past two years,” Sy said. “Adopting stablecoins was the gateway to get them onchain.”

Crypto exchange Kraken has begun accepting select tokenized stocks and exchange-traded funds (ETFs) as collateral for futures and margin trading, allowing eligible users to open leveraged positions without selling their holdings.

The feature initially supports 10 tokenized stocks and ETFs, including Apple, Nvidia, Tesla, Strategy, the SPDR S&P 500 ETF and Invesco QQQ Trust. Eligible users can post those holdings as collateral without selling them first.

Each eligible asset is assigned a collateral haircut that reduces its lending value based on risk. Broad-market ETFs receive the lowest haircut at 10%, while more volatile stocks such as Strategy and Robinhood are discounted by 30%.

Kraken also imposed collateral limits on each asset, with broad-market ETFs capped at up to $1 million in collateral value, most individual stocks at $250,000 and tokenized gold and Circle shares at $100,000. The exchange said both collateral limits and haircuts will be reviewed periodically and remain subject to change.

The feature is available only to eligible clients outside the United States. The exchange said tokenized stocks can be used as collateral for futures trading in the European Economic Area, while margin collateral support is available in other eligible jurisdictions outside the bloc.

Related: STS Digital launches structured crypto platform with Kraken as first partner

The launch comes about a week after Kraken partnered with Maple to launch an onchain warehouse financing facility for institutional crypto lending, allowing the exchange to expand its lending business through blockchain-based structured credit.

Tokenized assets gain broader financial utility

Kraken’s move adds to a series of efforts aimed at expanding the role of tokenized real-world assets in financial markets. Recent launches have focused on using blockchain-based securities as collateral, settlement assets and components of institutional lending infrastructure.

In February, Franklin Templeton and Binance launched a program allowing institutions to use tokenized money market fund shares as trading collateral while the underlying assets remained in regulated off-exchange custody. BlackRock’s tokenized US Treasury fund, BUIDL, is also accepted as trading collateral on Binance, as well as Crypto.com and Deribit.

Earlier this week, Tradeweb executed what it said was the first real-time purchase and sale of a tokenized US Treasury settled against tokenized cash on the Canton Network.

According to RWA.xyz, tokenized real-world assets have grown to roughly $32.6 billion in distributed value, while tokenized stocks have climbed to about $2 billion from roughly $381 million a year earlier.

Source: RWA.xyz

Magazine: Japanese pension fund tips 1% in crypto, G7 urges action on NK hackers: Asia Express

June delivered the worst month in the history of United States spot Bitcoin ETFs, with more than $4 billion pulled and 2026 flows turning negative for the first time. Over the same 2 weeks, the largest wallets on the network absorbed 270,000 BTC. One of these cohorts is going to be wrong, and the last 3 cycles say which one it usually is.

Two things happened in the Bitcoin market in the second half of June, and they cannot both be right.

The first happened in brokerage accounts. United States spot Bitcoin ETFs bled $4.06 billion in June, the worst calendar month since the products launched in January 2024, surpassing the previous record of $3.56 billion set in February 2025.

Depending on where the cutoff lands, some counts put the figure closer to $4.5 billion. The bleeding was not a single bad week: it followed a record 13-day outflow streak from mid-May that had already drained $4.37 billion, and by month-end the funds were net negative for 2026 as a whole, the first time cumulative yearly flows have gone red since the ETFs existed. The largest fund did most of the draining, shedding roughly $3.55 billion on its own.

The second happened on-chain. Over the final 2 weeks of that same stretch, wallets classified as whales accumulated more than 270,000 BTC, roughly $16.7 billion at prevailing prices, according to Bitfinex analysts. The buying happened while the spot premium, a gauge of how aggressively United States buyers are bidding, stayed negative, meaning the demand was not coming from American spot desks. Glassnode’s cohort data confirmed the shift from a second angle: long-term holders flipped back to net accumulation across wallet sizes at the start of July, even as the ETF prints stayed red.

$4 billion walked out one door while $16 billion walked in another. That is not noise. That is the two most-watched capital cohorts in this market taking opposite sides of the same trade at the same prices, and the resolution of that disagreement is the Bitcoin story for the rest of the year.

Prediction markets logged a striking surge in June, and the catalyst was unmistakable: the 2026 FIFA World Cup. According to DefiLlama, Kalshi processed nearly $9.4 billion in trading volume during the month, compared with about $5.3 billion in May. Polymarket International also rose to roughly $4.3 billion from approximately $3.5 billion the previous month.

The tournament began on June 11 and is the first FIFA World Cup to expand to 48 teams. Earlier coverage from CNBC reported that the competition became the biggest driver of prediction market activity in June, citing Dune Analytics data showing record notional volumes on both Kalshi and Polymarket.

Key takeaways

• Kalshi’s June trading volume nearly reached $9.4B, up from about $5.3B in May, with the World Cup serving as the primary driver.
• Polymarket International climbed to about $4.3B in June from roughly $3.5B in May, mirroring broader interest in football-related contracts.
• World Cup Round-of-16 matchups showed especially heavy participation, with some markets generating tens of millions in volume.
• The growth in trading volume is occurring alongside intensifying U.S. legal and regulatory pressure on prediction markets.

World Cup expansion meets prediction market demand

Football has long been a natural fit for markets where participants want to express views on outcomes. But this year’s tournament offers a larger menu of games and implications. With the World Cup expanding to 48 teams—up from 32 in previous editions—the number of match results, advancement scenarios, and related questions naturally multiplies, giving traders more opportunities to place event-linked bets.

CNBC’s reporting, referenced in the source, framed the World Cup as the dominant driver of June activity. It tied the surge to Dune Analytics figures indicating record notional trading volumes on both platforms, aligning with the month-over-month jump visible in DefiLlama’s protocol-level data.

Round-of-16 matchups pull in the highest volume

As the tournament moved into the knockout stage, trading activity concentrated further around high-stakes fixtures. One example highlighted in the source was Canada’s Round of 16 match against Morocco, scheduled for Saturday. At the time of writing, the match had generated over $48 million in trading volume on Kalshi and over $26.8 million on Polymarket.

Other advancement markets also attracted notable attention in the U.S. Round of 16 matchup. The source states that on Kalshi, a market on which team would advance generated more than $2.1 million in volume as of Saturday. On Polymarket, a comparable market had pulled in around $1.6 million by the same time.

For market participants, these figures underline a practical point: the World Cup doesn’t just bring overall volume—it can also concentrate liquidity into specific, time-sensitive contracts where traders rush to price developments and adjust their expectations as lineups, tactical decisions, and match conditions become clearer.

Trading growth collides with expanding legal pressure in the U.S.

Even as competition-linked volumes climb, prediction markets in the United States remain mired in a rapidly evolving legal debate. The source notes that by March, nearly a dozen U.S. states had taken action against companies including Kalshi and Polymarket. Some states aimed to halt prediction markets, while others sought to bring them under existing gambling laws and state tax frameworks.

Federal regulators have pushed back. The source points to a statement from CFTC Chair Michael Selig, referenced via a CFTC press release, who accused states of pursuing “illegal enforcement actions” against federally regulated exchanges. Selig argued that Congress gave the CFTC sole authority over commodity derivatives markets, which would include prediction markets, warning: “To any state that seeks to nullify federal law and seize authority over these markets, we will see you in court.”

The disagreement has also moved beyond agencies and into the broader legislative arena. In June, casino operators, tribal organizations, and labor groups urged Congress to carve sports-event contracts out of the CFTC’s authority through an amendment to the Digital Asset Market Clarity (CLARITY) Act—arguing those contracts should remain governed by state gambling laws and existing gaming oversight.

Regulators overseas: product substance, not labels

While the U.S. fight has centered on regulatory jurisdiction and enforcement, Europe has emphasized how products are categorized. The source cites an ESMA reminder issued on Friday that many event contracts may already fall under existing restrictions tied to binary options.

Crucially, ESMA’s position—as presented in the source—is that whether a product is regulated depends on its characteristics rather than the presence of an “event contract” label. That means platforms and market operators face a compliance challenge that is less about terminology and more about how specific contract mechanics are structured.

For traders and builders, the key question now is whether the World Cup-driven volume spike will translate into sustained engagement once the tournament ends—or whether liquidity fades as the legal and regulatory backdrop remains unresolved. Readers should watch for further court activity and potential legislative movement around CLARITY, since those outcomes could materially shape what kinds of contracts are allowed, where, and under what rules.