Kraken Accepts Tokenized Stocks as Collateral for Leverage

Kraken has begun accepting a select group of tokenized stocks and exchange-traded funds as collateral for futures and margin trading, allowing eligible non‑US customers to open leveraged positions without liquidating their token holdings.

The initial list covers 10 tokenized securities, including shares linked to Apple, Nvidia and Tesla, plus the SPDR S&P 500 ETF and the Invesco QQQ Trust. The exchange also included more volatile names such as Strategy and Robinhood among the eligible assets.

The collateral capability is limited to qualifying clients outside the United States. Tokenized stocks may be posted as collateral for futures trading in the European Economic Area, while margin collateral support is available in other eligible jurisdictions beyond the EEA.

Kraken applied asset-specific risk adjustments. Broad-market ETFs are subject to a 10% haircut, while more volatile individual stocks face a 30% haircut. The exchange set per-asset caps on collateral value: broad-market ETFs are capped at $1 million, most single-stock tokenized assets at $250,000, and tokenized gold and shares of Circle at $100,000. Kraken plans regular reviews of haircuts and collateral limits and said they may change over time.

The launch follows a recent partnership with Maple to establish an on‑chain warehouse financing facility for institutional crypto lending. The arrangement aims to expand Kraken’s lending capacity through blockchain-based structured credit.

The release adds to broader industry activity using tokenized real-world assets for trading and lending functions. Data from RWA.xyz show tokenized real-world assets at about $32.6 billion in distributed value, with tokenized stocks growing to roughly $2.0 billion from about $381 million a year earlier.

Kraken stressed the feature applies only to qualified customers and that the exchange will monitor collateral values and risk settings as market conditions change.