Kraken Launches Blockchain Partnership With DeFi Development

Decentralized finance company DeFi Development has launched a partnership with cryptocurrency exchange Kraken.

This collaboration, announced Monday (June 23), will see DeFi Development (DFDV) team with Kraken to list the tokenized stock of its publicly traded equity on the Solana blockchain.

“Through this partnership, DFDV joins the inaugural cohort of tokenized stocks on Kraken’s upcoming xStocks platform, alongside global giants like Apple, Tesla, and Nvidia,” the company said in a news release. “The tokenized representation of DeFi Dev Corp. will trade under the symbol DFDVx, unlocking unprecedented onchain access to the Company’s equity and making it the first U.S.-listed crypto treasury strategy to trade onchain.”

The release added that the debut of DFDVx marks a milestone in merging traditional capital markets with the Solana ecosystem. With DFDVx live onchain, developers, institutions and DeFi protocols can create new products, integrate tokenized equity into composable financial primitives, and open new paths to participate in public equity markets.

“We view the tokenization of our stock as a DeFi lego block, one that developers and institutions can build on top of,” said Joseph Onorati, CEO of DeFi Dev Corp. “By putting DFDVx onchain, we will unlock the next phase of innovation; we’re ready to explore new use cases that merge equity ownership with onchain finance.”

“As part of the xStocks alliance, we have seen incredible demand for access to US equities; the crypto community is excited for onchain access to crypto treasury strategy companies like DFDV,” said Val Gui, general manager of xStocks for Kraken. “We are excited to be offering DFDVx on the Kraken exchange.”

The release added that the tokenization of DFDV’s shares is happening at a time when demand for real-world assets (RWAs) on Solana is increasing.

As PYMNTS wrote earlier, RWAs represent a “potent convergence of blockchain technology and traditional finance.” And for chief financial officers (CFOs) and corporate treasurers in charge of overseeing balance sheets, optimizing liquidity and reducing risk, RWAs could provide both compelling opportunities along with added layers of complexity.

“Unlike cryptocurrencies, which derive their value from consensus and scarcity, RWAs are anchored in real-world value and can often generate cash flow,” that report said. “For CFOs, this shift signals a move from speculative digital assets toward instruments that might be able to play tangible roles in liquidity management, yield generation and even collateralization strategies.”