Cryptocurrency exchange Backpack has announced the addition of SEC-registered US stocks to its trading platform with Superstate, a blockchain finance startup led by Compound founder Robert Leshner.
The deal, announced Wednesday, will integrate Superstate’s Opening Bell platform into Backpack, allowing users outside the U.S. to trade tokenized shares of publicly traded companies on-chain.
In addition to this, Backpack claimed the bragging rights of being the first centralized crypto exchange to list issuer-backed SEC-registered stocks natively on-chain. Supported stocks and rollout dates will be announced in the coming weeks, the companies said.
The companies say these products are not synthetic or wrapped derivative products, but real stocks issued under U.S. securities laws with the same CUSIP identifier as traditional products on the Nasdaq and the New York Stock Exchange.
“For traders, this means more assets can be bought, sold and used as collateral, creating more margin opportunities than in traditional markets,” Robert Leshner said in a statement. “For issuers, it expands their reach to millions of crypto-native investors and connects them directly to modern capital markets infrastructure.”
The move comes as the tokenization of financial instruments such as stocks, bonds, and funds is gaining momentum across the crypto market. Over the past few months, a wide range of tokenized equity products have debuted, including Robinhood, Gemini, Ondo Finance’s Global Markets, and Kraken and Backed Finance’s xStocks, creating token versions of the largest publicly traded companies and ETFs.
Superstate’s opening bell focuses on creating tokenized versions of publicly traded stocks through registered transfer agents. The platform brings the structure of US capital markets to blockchain rails, providing direct ownership and future access to DeFi tools.
Backpack was founded by cryptocurrency developer Armani Ferrante and is best known for its role in the Solana ecosystem and for acquiring the European arm of failed cryptocurrency exchange FTX. It has since grown into a broader financial platform. The company launched a centralized exchange with a virtual asset service provider license in Dubai in 2023, and last month launched an EU-focused derivatives exchange based in Cyprus and regulated under the MiFID II framework.
Read more: BlackRock CEO Larry Fink eyes bigger role in tokenization
