Kraken’s Payward adds proxy voting to xStocks through Broadridge partnership

Payward, Kraken’s parent company, has partnered with Broadridge to let eligible xStocks holders submit proxy voting preferences tied to the shares underlying their tokens, changing an earlier arrangement in which xStocks carried no voting rights. Through Broadridge’s corporate governance platform, investors in eligible tokenized shares can receive general meeting invitations, review proxy materials and cast votes via ProxyVote.com using Web3 authentication rather than conventional account logins. Payward chief business officer Mark Greenberg said the aim of tokenization is not only faster, programmable capital markets but also extending the rights that come with share ownership, including a say in how companies are run. Broadridge, which processes millions of shareholder votes annually, is extending its governance infrastructure to tokenized securities with digital delivery of shareholder materials, voting instruction handling and auditable process tracking. The tokens are issued by Backed and are available to qualified investors outside the United States and the United Kingdom. Payward also said xStocks has surpassed $25 billion in cumulative trading volume since launching last year and now includes more than 500 tokenized assets spanning stocks, ETFs and IPO investments. A partnership with GTN has already expanded the product to Hong Kong-listed stocks, with further rollout planned across the UK, Europe and South Korea.