Backpack Launches 24/7 Tokenized U.S. Stock Trading in 150+ Countries, Joining Bybit and Kraken in Equity Race

Crypto exchange Backpack has gone live with 24/7 trading for tokenized U.S. equities, opening access to stocks like SpaceX and Micron for users across more than 150 countries — and it has joined what is quickly becoming a multi-exchange race to bring round-the-clock equity markets to international investors via blockchain.

The product is live, not merely announced. According to CoinTelegraph, Backpack’s launch places it directly alongside Bybit, Kraken, and SSOL$78.12▲0.47% DeFi protocols that have already rolled out similar tokenized stock offerings. The underlying infrastructure is xStocks, which lets non-U.S. investors trade up to 60 tokenized stocks — a basket that includes high-profile private-adjacent names like SpaceX alongside semiconductor giant Micron, per the Apple Podcasts source.

The framing from crypto.news is blunt: Backpack is “challenging Wall Street” by offering 24/7 access to U.S. equities in markets where traditional American brokerage infrastructure either does not reach or operates only during New York Stock Exchange hours. Whale-alert.io’s coverage describes the move as a live product launch that expands access to real U.S. equities — concrete brokerage development, not just another token issuance.

A Sector That Has Moved Past Proof-of-Concept

Tokenized stocks have quietly become one of the fastest-growing corners of crypto. Related desk coverage confirms that tokenized stock transfers doubled to $8.41 billion in a single month, with both Solana DeFi and traditional finance players pushing onchain equity. That is not a rounding error. It means the infrastructure layer — whether xStocks, Solana programs, or centralized exchange order books — has matured to the point where volume is compounding rather than trickling.

Backpack’s launch arrives in a cautious market. The total crypto market cap stands at $2,293.67 billion as of this writing, with a Fear & Greed Index reading of 26 out of 100 — firmly in “Fear” territory. Solana, whose DeFi ecosystem is cited as part of the tokenized equities infrastructure stack, is trading at $78.13, down 4.89% over the past week. That matters because xStocks and Solana DeFi are named alongside Backpack, Bybit, and Kraken as participants in this tokenized equities push. If the underlying chain is softening, the trading venues launching on top of it are betting that equity tokenization demand will outlast the current risk-off cycle.

The Competitive Picture

Bybit and Kraken are centralized exchanges with their own custody, compliance, and user-acquisition funnels. Backpack is a smaller, wallet-native exchange that has staked its identity on self-custody and portability. Launching tokenized equities is a revenue and relevance play — it gives Backpack users a reason to keep assets on-platform rather than bridging to a competitor. The question is whether international investors will trust a relatively young exchange with exposure to U.S. equities, or whether the incumbent names capture the flow. Every exchange in this race benefits from the same structural arbitrage: U.S. equity markets close on weekends and holidays, but crypto markets never do. Tokenized stocks collapse that gap.

The broader convergence is hard to ignore. Robinhood recently launched AI agentic trading for crypto after 70,000 accounts went live for stocks and options, signaling that traditional and crypto-native platforms are racing toward the same destination — 24/7, programmable, cross-asset access. Backpack, Bybit, and Kraken are approaching from the crypto side. Robinhood is approaching from the brokerage side. They are heading toward each other.

Regulatory Perimeter and What Comes Next

For now, Backpack’s tokenized equity product is restricted to non-U.S. users. That sidesteps the most aggressive regulatory exposure but also excludes the deepest pool of equity-trading demand. The 150-country footprint targets markets where access to U.S. stocks is friction-laden — high fees, limited broker availability, settlement delays, or capital controls. Tokenization compresses all of that into a crypto wallet and a perpetual order book.

Whether that compression holds under stress — a market crash, a custody failure, a regulatory enforcement action — remains untested at scale. The $8.41 billion monthly transfer figure suggests the sector has moved past proof-of-concept. But volume during a Fear-index environment and volume during a liquidation cascade are different animals entirely.

Next to watch: whether Bybit or Kraken expand their tokenized stock baskets in response, whether xStocks adds new listings beyond the current 60, and whether U.S. regulators take a more active stance as offshore tokenized equity volume grows. Solana’s price action — down nearly 5% on the week at $78.13 — will also matter for the DeFi side of this ecosystem, since onchain equity infrastructure depends on chain liquidity staying healthy.