Payward partners with Broadridge to bring voting rights to xStocks holders

Tokenized stocks just got a lot more interesting. Payward Services, the B2B arm of Kraken, announced a partnership with Broadridge Financial Solutions that will allow eligible xStocks holders to exercise proxy voting rights on shares underlying their tokens.

The integration, announced on August 5, 2026, connects Broadridge’s governance platform and ProxyVote.com with Web3 authentication, meaning xStocks holders can now submit proxy votes the same way traditional shareholders do.

Fixing the one thing tokenized stocks couldn’t do

When the xStocks framework launched in June 2025, holders got economic exposure to the underlying equities, meaning they could profit from price movements and dividends. What they couldn’t do was vote.

Broadridge’s infrastructure changes that equation. The company processes over $18 trillion daily in securities across both traditional and tokenized markets. Broadridge has been extending governance capabilities to tokenized securities since at least May 2026, working with partners like Galaxy and Ondo Finance.

The xStocks trajectory

Payward’s tokenized equities platform now supports over 500 tokenized assets, spanning equities, ETFs, and even pre-IPO offerings. That breadth has made xStocks the most widely traded tokenized equities framework by transaction volume.

In March 2026, xStocks added a Nasdaq gateway, giving holders access to one of the world’s most liquid equity markets through tokenized channels. On July 22, 2026, Payward integrated GTN to open up international equities.

One important caveat: xStocks tokens remain unavailable to US investors.

Why this matters for investors and the broader market

For investors outside the US who hold xStocks, the practical impact is straightforward. They can now receive proxy materials digitally and vote through ProxyVote.com using their Web3 credentials.

Broadridge’s daily processing volume of over $18 trillion in securities gives it a credibility that few companies in the space can match. When a firm of that scale commits to tokenized securities governance, it sends a signal to institutional investors who have been watching the space from the sidelines.

Portfolio managers at pension funds and endowments don’t just care about price exposure. They care about fiduciary duties, which include exercising governance rights on behalf of beneficiaries. A tokenized equity without voting rights is a non-starter for most institutional mandates. This partnership removes that specific objection.

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