Your Stocks Can Now Trade Like Crypto—24/7 With 20x Leverage

The lines between crypto and traditional finance just got a lot blurrier. Kraken announced it's launching what it claims are the first regulated perpetual futures contracts for tokenized stocks—meaning you can now trade derivatives of Apple, Tesla, and the S&P 500 with 20x leverage, 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

This isn't just another crypto product launch. It's potentially the beginning of how all financial markets might operate in an always-on, digital world.

What Kraken Actually Built

Kraken's new offering builds on its December acquisition of xStocks, extending the crypto exchange's tokenized equities platform into the derivatives space. The initial lineup includes tokenized versions of major U.S. stocks (Apple, Nvidia, Tesla), indices (S&P 500, Nasdaq 100), and even SPDR's gold ETF.

Here's how it works: The underlying tokenized stocks are fully collateralized and backed 1:1 by the actual assets. This provides a pricing anchor even when U.S. markets are closed. Unlike traditional futures that expire, these perpetual contracts trade continuously with no expiration date—just like crypto derivatives.

The service is available to eligible non-U.S. users in more than 110 countries, deliberately excluding American investors due to regulatory constraints.

"This is what it looks like when traditional markets are rebuilt for a crypto-native, always-on world," said Mark Greenberg, Kraken's global head of consumer.

The Perpetuals Revolution Comes to Wall Street

To understand why this matters, consider the numbers: Blockchain-based decentralized exchanges processed over $600 billion in perpetuals trading volume in January alone, with Hyperliquid claiming $200 billion in monthly volume.

Perpetuals have become crypto's dominant trading instrument because they offer what traditional markets don't: continuous access, capital efficiency, and the ability to take long or short positions at any time. No expiration dates, no settlement hassles, just pure price exposure with leverage.

Kraken's move essentially asks: Why should this innovation stay confined to crypto? Why can't someone in Tokyo trade Tesla at 3 AM with the same efficiency they trade Bitcoin?

The timing isn't coincidental. Traditional markets are experiencing unprecedented volatility, yet they're still constrained by legacy infrastructure—trading hours, settlement delays, and geographic restrictions that feel increasingly antiquated in a global, digital economy.

Two Visions of Market Evolution

This development represents a fundamental split in how financial markets might evolve:

The Crypto-Native Vision: Markets should be always-on, globally accessible, and built on programmable infrastructure. Tokenization breaks down artificial barriers between asset classes. If you can trade crypto derivatives 24/7, why not everything else?

The Traditional Finance Perspective: Established markets exist for good reasons—regulatory oversight, market stability, investor protection. Trading hours provide natural circuit breakers. High leverage and constant access can amplify systemic risks.

Kraken isn't alone in this push. Rival Ondo Finance announced similar plans for perpetuals trading with tokenized stocks. Meanwhile, traditional players like WisdomTree just received SEC approval for 24/7 trading of its tokenized Treasury fund, signaling that even regulators are warming to always-on markets.

The $10 billion tokenized Treasury market, led by BlackRock and Circle, suggests institutional appetite for bringing traditional assets onto blockchain rails.

The Regulatory Chess Game

Here's where it gets interesting: Kraken can offer this to global users but not Americans. This creates a two-tiered system where non-U.S. investors get crypto-style access to U.S. equities while Americans remain locked in traditional market structures.

This regulatory arbitrage raises uncomfortable questions. Are U.S. investors being protected or disadvantaged? As more financial innovation happens offshore, does America risk losing its capital markets leadership?

The SEC's recent approval of WisdomTree's 24/7 Treasury fund trading suggests U.S. regulators are testing the waters. But the pace of change outside U.S. jurisdiction is accelerating.