Kraken Now Lets Traders Post Tokenized Stocks as Collateral for Leverage

Kraken has started letting eligible users pledge select tokenized stocks and exchange-traded funds as collateral for margin and futures trading, allowing traders to open leveraged positions without liquidating their holdings, according to Cointelegraph.

The feature currently covers ten tokenized stocks and ETFs, including Apple, Nvidia, Tesla, Strategy, the SPDR S&P 500 ETF and the Invesco QQQ Trust. Eligible clients can post these assets as collateral while retaining their exposure to the underlying holdings.

Haircuts and collateral caps vary by asset

Kraken applies a collateral “haircut” to each eligible asset based on perceived risk, reducing how much lending value it carries. Broad-market ETFs receive the smallest discount at 10%, while more volatile names such as Strategy and Robinhood are cut by 30%.

The exchange has also set collateral ceilings for each asset class. Broad-market ETFs can be used for up to $1 million in collateral value, most individual stocks are capped at $250,000, and tokenized gold and Circle shares are limited to $100,000. Kraken said both the haircuts and the collateral limits will be reviewed periodically and are subject to change.

Access to the feature is restricted to eligible clients outside the United States. Kraken said tokenized stocks can back futures trading for clients in the European Economic Area, while margin collateral support extends to other eligible jurisdictions outside the bloc.

Part of a broader lending push

The launch follows Kraken’s partnership with Maple roughly a week earlier to set up an onchain warehouse financing facility for institutional crypto lending, a move aimed at expanding the exchange’s blockchain-based structured credit business.

Kraken’s collateral feature adds to a growing list of initiatives using tokenized real-world assets as trading collateral. In February, Franklin Templeton and Binance launched a program letting institutions post tokenized money market fund shares as collateral while keeping the underlying assets in regulated off-exchange custody. BlackRock’s tokenized U.S. Treasury fund, BUIDL, is already accepted as trading collateral on Binance, Crypto.com and Deribit.

Earlier this week, Tradeweb said it executed what it described as the first real-time purchase and sale of a tokenized U.S. Treasury settled against tokenized cash on the Canton Network, according to Cointelegraph.

Tokenized stock market keeps expanding

Data from RWA.xyz cited by Cointelegraph shows tokenized real-world assets have grown to roughly $32.6 billion in distributed value. Tokenized stocks specifically have climbed to about $2 billion, up from roughly $381 million a year earlier.

The rapid growth underscores how exchanges and asset managers are increasingly weaving tokenized securities into core trading infrastructure, using them not just as investment products but as functional collateral and settlement instruments within crypto markets.

Read more: Micron’s Tokenized Stock Hits $13B Volume as Equity Perps Market Grows 40x