London Stock Exchange Targets 2027 xStocks Trading in Payward Deal

The London Stock Exchange announced on September 1, 2026 that it plans to launch UK tokenised equity structures and has formed a partnership with Payward, the financial infrastructure platform behind the xStocks tokenised equities framework, to explore how regulated market infrastructure and digital-native distribution can support tokenised public equity markets. Under the collaboration, Payward will tokenise the 100 largest London-listed companies as xStocks, and, subject to regulatory approval, the exchange intends to list xStocks and start trading them on LSE 24, its recently announced 24-hour trading venue, in 2027.

Planned Tokenised Equity Structure

The exchange is assessing a UK tokenised equity structure designed to broaden access to capital markets whilst preserving the shareholder rights, protections and governance standards that underpin public markets today, according to the LSEG announcement. The work will consider how LSEG’s Digital Securities Depository (LSEG DSD) could support settlement and asset servicing, subject to regulatory approval. LSEG describes the DSD as its digital settlement and servicing infrastructure for tokenised securities, being developed to support the issuance, recording, transfer, asset servicing and settlement of digital securities within a regulated infrastructure model.

The exchange said the initiative aims to help create a rights-preserving model for tokenised public equities that expands investor access, supports issuers seeking innovative routes to market and greater insight, and enables the efficient movement of assets across increasingly digital financial markets seeking to minimise isolated pools of liquidity.

Payward Partnership and xStocks

The partnership will focus on exploring how digital-native access, wallet-based interaction and partner infrastructure could connect with LSEG’s regulated market ecosystem to facilitate connectivity between tokenised and traditional infrastructure. The two firms will explore opportunities to connect regulated capital markets with on-chain ecosystems, building a route for issuers and investors to make greater use of private and public blockchains, where relevant regulatory obligations, including AML and operational resilience, can continue to be met.

xStocks are 1:1 backed tokenised representations of publicly traded shares. They track the performance of the underlying security while adding the speed, programmability, and around-the-clock access of blockchain, and can move between centralized exchanges, self-custodied wallets, and onchain applications. In its own announcement, Payward stated that in the coming weeks the 100 largest companies listed on the London Stock Exchange will be available as xStocks, giving investors in more than 110 countries a direct, onchain route into the UK’s largest listed names, tradable 24/7 as programmable assets. xStocks are not currently available for UK-based investors. Payward reported that xStocks have passed $40 billion in total volume, including more than $20 billion settled onchain, across over 200,000 holders.

The first London-listed xStocks will be live shortly on Kraken and other supporting xStocks Alliance platforms, Payward said. Subject to regulatory approval, the London Stock Exchange will then begin listing xStocks and support trading on LSE 24. Once live, the suite of supported xStocks will include tokenised equities representing assets listed in the U.S., EU, UK, and Hong Kong, alongside additional asset classes, according to Payward. The two firms will also explore native LSE issued equity tokens, enabling London Stock Exchange members to issue and service equity natively onchain, with the same rights and full fungibility as traditional shares.

xStocks are issued by Backed Assets (JE) Limited, a Jersey private limited company, and offered to eligible Kraken customers via Payward Digital Solutions Ltd., a company licensed to conduct digital asset business by the Bermuda Monetary Authority. In the European Union and European Economic Area, xStocks are offered via Payward Europe Digital Solutions (CY) Ltd., a Cyprus investment firm authorized and regulated under EU MiFID II. xStocks are not registered under the U.S. Securities Act and are not available in the United States or to U.S. persons.

Related Market Infrastructure Work

The tokenised equity initiative forms part of LSEG’s broader work to modernise market infrastructure. On July 21, 2026, the exchange announced plans to launch LSE 24, a 24/5 trading venue operating separately from the Main Market, with client testing by the end of 2026 and Exchange Traded Products as the first asset class in the first half of 2027, subject to regulatory approval. LSE 24 will operate from 17:00 to 07:50 with a 30-minute pause between 18:30 and 19:00, while the Main Market continues trading between 08:00 and 16:30.

LSEG first announced plans to build the DSD on February 12, 2026, describing an on-chain settlement capability fully interoperable across traditional and digital markets, with the first deliverable planned for 2026, subject to regulatory approval. On January 15, 2026, LSEG launched Digital Settlement House (LSEG DiSH), an open-access platform enabling programmatic and instantaneous settlement between independent payment networks, both on and off chain, through commercial bank deposits held on the DiSH ledger.

Julia Hoggett, CEO of LSE plc and Head of Digital and Securities Markets, LSEG, said: “Tokenisation has the potential to change how investors access, and how issuers use, financial markets, but it must develop in a way that preserves the trust, rights and role of regulated markets. By working with Payward, and continuing to collaborate across the market infrastructure ecosystem, we are exploring how issuers and investors can benefit from new forms of access while maintaining the standards that underpin public markets.”

Arjun Sethi, Co-CEO of Payward, said the partnership demonstrates how investors can access public markets in new ways, adding: “Bringing London-listed companies onchain as xStocks is the start of that.”