Crypto exchange Backpack said it is adding SEC-registered U.S. equities to its trading platform with Superstate, the blockchain finance startup led by Compound founder Robert Leshner.
Announced on Wednesday, the deal embeds Superstate’s Opening Bell platform into Backpack, allowing non-U.S. users to trade tokenized shares of public companies onchain.
With the addition, Backpack claimed the bragging rights of being the first centralized crypto exchange to list issuer-backed, SEC-registered equities natively onchain. Supported equities and rollout date will be announced in the coming weeks, the firms said.
These offerings are not synthetic or wrapped derivative products, the firms said, but real equities issued under U.S. securities law with the same CUSIP identifiers as their traditional counterparts on Nasdaq or the NYSE.
“For traders, that means more assets to buy, sell and use as collateral — with better margin opportunities than traditional markets,” Robert Leshner said in a statement. “For issuers, it expands reach to millions of crypto-native investors, connecting them directly with modern capital markets infrastructure.”
The move comes as tokenization of financial instruments, such as equity shares, bonds, and funds, is gaining momentum across crypto markets. A wide range of tokenized equity offerings debuted over the past few months, including Robinhood, Gemini, Ondo Finance’s Global Markets and xStocks by Kraken and Backed Finance, creating token versions of the largest publicly-traded companies and ETFs.
Superstate’s Opening Bell focuses on creating tokenized versions of publicly traded stocks by working through a registered transfer agent. The platform brings the structure of U.S. capital markets onto blockchain rails, offering direct ownership and future access to DeFi tools.
Backpack was founded by crypto developer Armani Ferrante and is best known for its role in the Solana ecosystem and having acquired imploded crypto exchange FTX’s European arm. It has since grown into a broader financial platform. It launched a centralized exchange in 2023 with a virtual asset service provider license in Dubai, while it opened last month its EU-focused derivatives venue based in Cyprus and regulated under the MiFID II framework.
Read more: BlackRock CEO Larry Fink Eyes Bigger Role in Tokenization
