Cryptocurrency exchange KuCoin has launched perpetual derivatives linked to stocks such as Tesla and Strategy, allowing traders to speculate on price movements through USDt-settled contracts that trade around the clock.
According to Friday’s announcement, the initial listing will include perpetual contracts for TSLAUSDT and MSTRUSDT, which will track price movements in the underlying stocks but will not confer ownership of the shares. Instead, the product is a synthetic derivative settled in stablecoins.
Contracts have no expiry date and can be traded continuously. Positions can be opened with as little as 1 USDt (USDT), providing a low entry threshold for traders seeking exposure to stock-linked price movements through a crypto trading platform.
According to KuCoin, the product uses a pricing framework designed to track the underlying stock benchmark while taking into account the differences between traditional stock market hours and the ongoing trading environment of the crypto derivatives market.
The company said access to the agreements may be restricted in some jurisdictions depending on local regulations.
Founded in 2017, KuCoin says its platform serves over 40 million users in over 200 countries and has over 1,000 digital tokens listed for trading. The exchange ranks eighth in spot trading volume, according to CoinMarketCap data.
MicroStrategy, which rebranded to Strategy in February 2025, is currently the largest corporate Bitcoin holder with 738,731. $BTC It’s on the balance sheet. Tesla holds 11,509 shares, making it the 12th largest stockholder. $BTC.
Top 20 Bitcoin Financial Companies. sauce: BitcoinTreasuries.NET
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Fintechs and exchanges move to tokenize stocks
The market for tokenized stocks has soared since the beginning of 2025. The market value of tokenized shares is now approximately $1.03 billion, up from approximately $291 million on January 1, 2025, according to RWA.xyz data.
Growth in this sector is being driven by fintech companies, crypto exchanges, and traditional brokerages alike.
In October, Robinhood expanded its tokenization initiative on the Arbitrum blockchain, adding 80 new equity tokens, bringing the total number of tokenized assets on the platform to nearly 500.
Tokenized stock market capitalization. sauce: RWA.xyz
In June, more than 60 tokenized stocks were made available on Kraken and Bybit following the launch of Backed Finance’s xStocks product. Last month, Kraken launched tokenized equity perpetual futures trading on its regulated derivatives platform, allowing eligible non-US clients to trade 24/7 leveraged exposure to major US stock indexes, gold, and companies such as Tesla, Nvidia, and Apple.
Traditional exchanges are also considering this concept. The New York Stock Exchange announced in January that it is developing a platform for trading tokenized stocks and exchange-traded funds with 24/7 trading and instant settlement, subject to regulatory approval.
In September, Nasdaq applied to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission for approval to list tokenized shares. Since then, we have partnered with Kraken’s parent company Payward and its subsidiary Backed Finance to develop an equity tokenization gateway. The platform is expected to begin offering services to publishers in the first half of 2027.
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