Quicknode

September 2, 2025 — 10 min read

Introduction: The Wall Street x DeFi Collision

Imagine trading Apple or Tesla stock—not through a brokerage, but in a decentralized app on Solana. That’s no longer a thought experiment. On June 30, 2025, Backed Finance launched xStocks, bringing 60+ fully collateralized U.S. equities like AAPL, NVDA, and TSLA on-chain as SPL tokens.

Each xStock token is backed 1:1 by real-world shares held in custody under Swiss regulatory oversight. These tokens are now live on Solana, giving developers and users 24/7 access to stock markets—without intermediaries, trading hours, or geographic restrictions.

This marks a major turning point. For the first time, traditional equities are composable within DeFi: you can LP Apple stock, swap Tesla for SOL, or borrow against NVIDIA—all on the same chain.

It’s Wall Street meeting Web3 at Solana speeds. And for DeFi developers, this unlocks a massive new design space: tokenized real-world assets with mainstream relevance, crypto-native UX, and enterprise-grade infra support from Quicknode.

What Are xStocks?

xStocks are fully tokenized representations of publicly traded U.S. equities—like Apple (AAPL), Tesla (TSLA), Nvidia (NVDA), and over 60 other blue-chip stocks—issued as SPL tokens on Solana. Each xStock token corresponds 1:1 to a real share held in custody by a regulated entity, ensuring that the on-chain asset is directly backed by a real-world security.

These tokens are issued by Backed Finance, a Swiss-based firm registered under the Swiss DLT Act and operating under the oversight of financial regulators in Switzerland. This gives xStocks a compliant foundation, distinguishing them from earlier synthetic or derivative-based stock products that struggled with regulatory uncertainty.

Key features of xStocks include:

• Real asset backing: Each token is fully collateralized by a share held in segregated accounts with licensed custodians.

• Regulatory compliance: Access is gated through frontends requiring KYC, allowing for global participation while adhering to Swiss and European laws.

• 24/7 on-chain liquidity: Unlike traditional markets limited by trading hours, xStocks can be traded, transferred, and integrated into DeFi protocols around the clock.

Access and trading:

• CeFi venues: Listed on centralized exchanges like Bybit and Kraken, allowing users to buy and sell tokenized stocks with stablecoins or crypto pairs.

• DeFi protocols: Integrated across Solana-native ecosystems—enabling users to provide liquidity, swap via AMMs, or use xStocks in lending protocols.

By bridging real equities into crypto-native rails, xStocks unlock programmable, permissionless financial primitives on top of traditional capital markets—a critical step in merging Wall Street with Web3 infrastructure.

The July Surge: Explosive Growth Onchain

In the two weeks following their launch on June 30, 2025, xStocks saw a meteoric rise in onchain value, tripling from approximately $35 million to over $100 million by mid-July. This rapid growth wasn't just a fleeting spike—it reflected a strong market appetite for regulated, real-world asset (RWA) exposure on fast, low-fee blockchains.

RWA Momentum Meets Solana Speed

The xStocks surge closely mirrored a broader uptick in Solana’s DeFi activity. The network’s total value locked (TVL) climbed sharply during the same period, as traders and developers poured into protocols integrating tokenized equities. For many, xStocks represented the first time retail and institutional users could access and move U.S. equities 24/7 within a high-throughput crypto environment.

Market Signals: Why This Matters

This explosive traction underscores a turning point in RWA adoption. For years, the idea of bringing stocks onchain was theoretical or limited to derivatives. xStocks’ compliant, backed approach gives DeFi users real exposure to global equity markets without exiting the crypto ecosystem.

At the same time, this validates the demand for composable TradFi instruments—assets that can be traded, lent, or collateralized across permissionless networks.

Developer Activity Surges

The onchain growth has sparked immediate interest across the builder community. Within days, developers began integrating xStocks into:

• Decentralized exchanges (DEXs): Offering tokenized stock trading pairs alongside stablecoins and crypto assets.

• Lending markets: Using equities as collateral in Solana-native money markets.

• RWA dashboards and portfolios: Enabling asset managers to track tokenized equity exposure in real time.

The July surge didn’t just bring capital—it brought a new wave of infrastructure development around tokenized stocks.

Why This Is a Big Deal for DeFi Builders

The launch of xStocks doesn’t just introduce equities to the blockchain — it unlocks a powerful new asset class for DeFi to compose with. For the first time, U.S. stocks like AAPL, TSLA, and NVDA can be traded, borrowed, staked, or collateralized entirely onchain.

This is a tectonic shift in how global markets can operate.

Always-On, Borderless Equities

Traditionally, equities are gated by region-specific brokers, limited trading hours, and legacy rails. xStocks shatters those constraints. As SPL tokens on Solana, these assets:

• Trade 24/7/365, including nights and weekends — no “market close” friction

• Settle instantly through atomic swaps or AMMs

• Bypass intermediaries — no brokers, no custodians required on the user end

• Offer global access — any user with a wallet and USDC can now trade U.S. stocks permissionlessly

This means retail users in India, Africa, or South America can access U.S. equities without a bank account or brokerage — just a Phantom wallet.

New Primitives for Protocol Design

DeFi builders now have access to composable, real-world assets with deep brand recognition and predictable cash flows. This unlocks a massive new design surface:

• Stock-backed stablecoins: Use tokenized equities as collateral to mint new stable assets — e.g., an “aUSD” backed by AAPL, TSLA, NVDA baskets.

• Structured yield products: Build DeFi-native covered call vaults or stock-tranching mechanisms that let users earn yields on tokenized equity exposure.

• Cross-chain synthetic assets: Create mirrored representations of xStocks on other chains (e.g., EVM or Cosmos) using synthetic issuance protocols.

• Equity-based money markets: Let users borrow against their xStocks via protocols like Kamino, MarginFi, or Solend.

• DEX liquidity pools with real-world exposure: Enable AMMs with USDC/xAAPL or SOL/xTSLA pools, offering retail users real-time equity exposure with LP yield incentives.

These primitives could power hedge fund strategies, retail investing apps, and onchain robo-advisors — all without needing TradFi integrations.

Composability with the Solana Stack

Thanks to Solana’s high throughput, low latency, and parallel transaction processing, xStocks are optimized for real-time DeFi applications:

• Instant collateralization in lending protocols

• Composable into RWAs dashboards for onchain portfolio management

• Integration with oracle networks like Pyth or Switchboard for live stock price feeds

• Seamless wallet support across Solana-native apps

This means builders can create frictionless UX experiences that feel like Robinhood — but without custody risk or regional limits.

Institutional-Grade, Permissionless Infrastructure

Backed Finance issues xStocks with 1:1 backing held by regulated custodians, under Swiss legal frameworks. That makes them legally compliant, institutionally sound, and verifiable — all while remaining:

• DeFi-compatible: No KYC needed at the protocol level

• Smart-contract friendly: Easily integrated via SPL token standards

• Composable: Treated like any other fungible asset in the ecosystem

The result: builders can now plug equities into DeFi money Legos without sacrificing regulatory assurance.

Quicknode’s Role: Infra for Tokenized Asset Builders

As tokenized finance gains momentum, the next wave of innovation depends on scalable, real-time infrastructure. Quicknode provides the mission-critical backend that enables builders to deploy, monitor, and scale xStock-based applications on Solana — without friction.

Solana RPCs and APIs Purpose-Built for High Performance

xStocks demand low-latency data delivery and high-throughput execution — the exact environment Quicknode was built for.

• Optimized Solana RPC endpoints ensure fast block propagation and minimal data lag

• Designed for millisecond-level responsiveness, even during high volume events

• Supports both JSON-RPC and WebSockets for flexibility across frontend and backend systems

Whether you’re building a retail trading frontend or an institutional dashboard, you get real-time accuracy and speed at scale.

Infra That Scales With You

Post-xStocks launch, onchain value jumped from ~$35M to over $100M in two weeks. That kind of demand spike can overwhelm unprepared systems.

Quicknode’s infra is built to absorb surges in traffic without degradation:

• Horizontal scaling ensures uptime under load

• Rate-limiting and load-balancing built in to protect mission-critical endpoints

• Global infrastructure footprint for reduced latency in key markets (US, Asia, EU)

From pre-launch testing to millions of daily requests — Quicknode grows with your product.

Specialized Tools for Tokenized Asset Builders

Quicknode offers a robust suite of APIs and tooling tailored for the needs of xStocks builders:

• Streaming Token Prices: Set up real-time data pipelines for tokenized stock prices, with WebSocket streams or GraphQL queries

• Trade Monitoring: Track onchain activity across DEXs and lending protocols that integrate xStocks, enabling compliance, analytics, and alerting

• Analytics & Dashboards: Feed reliable blockchain data into your frontend dashboards using tools like Quicknode SDKs and ElasticSearch integrations

• Cross-Chain Bridging: With xAssets likely to expand to other L1s and L2s, Quicknode supports asset transfers and relayer services across chains

Developers can go from idea to mainnet with full-stack visibility and performance.

Tokenized finance isn’t just about wrapping assets — it’s about enabling an entirely new developer paradigm. Quicknode ensures that builders on Solana have the tools and infrastructure needed to lead that future.

A Glimpse into the Future: Where This Is Going

The xStocks launch on Solana isn’t just a product release — it’s a signal. A proof point that tokenized finance is no longer a niche experiment, but the foundation of a new global financial stack. We’re entering a phase where TradFi and DeFi no longer operate in silos, but begin to interlock in composable, programmable ways.

Wall Street, Now Borderless

Tokenized U.S. equities — backed 1:1 and live on a permissionless chain — open up a radically new financial frontier:

• Global 24/7 access to U.S. financial markets, without brokers or banking intermediaries

• Exposure to real stocks like $AAPL, $TSLA, or $NVDA from any mobile wallet

• Settlements occur

  in seconds

  , not days, removing friction from both trading and integration

The traditional rails of finance — built around time zones, clearinghouses, and closed access — are being rebuilt from the ground up.

Composable Finance, Powered by Real-World Assets

With tokenized equities onchain, developers are now empowered to build the next generation of fintech:

• RWA-Backed Stablecoins: Create USD-equivalent tokens backed by baskets of real stocks

• Collateralized Lending: Borrow against $AAPL or $GOOG within DeFi lending protocols

• Synthetic Indexes & Derivatives: Build sector-based tokenized instruments that mimic ETFs or thematic baskets

• Fintech dApps for Emerging Markets: Enable users in LATAM, Southeast Asia, or Africa to access U.S. markets using stablecoins and mobile apps

This unlocks the long tail of financial innovation — apps and services that TradFi can’t or won’t build.

Regulation-Ready by Design

Unlike earlier waves of crypto innovation, the new RWA primitives are emerging with compliance built-in:

• xStocks are backed 1:1 by real shares, held by regulated custodians in Switzerland

• Builders can opt-in to jurisdictional restrictions, KYC gates, or permissioned access where required

• Platforms like Backed Finance are working within MiCA-aligned frameworks, ready for both retail and institutional adoption

This paves the way for institutional liquidity to flow into DeFi — not through speculation, but through tokenized value.

The convergence of TradFi and DeFi is no longer hypothetical — it’s shipping. xStocks are just the beginning of a world where every asset class — stocks, bonds, real estate — becomes programmable.

Quicknode is committed to powering the infrastructure that makes this future real.

Unlocking Global Markets for U.S. Stocks on Solana

xStocks mark a defining moment for the DeFi ecosystem — one where real-world equities become programmable, composable, and globally accessible. With 1:1 backing, compliance-ready issuance, and native integration on Solana, these tokenized stocks break the limitations of traditional finance and unlock a new class of DeFi primitives.

For developers, the opportunity is massive: build with globally recognized assets, create new yield strategies, and deliver financial access without borders. Quicknode’s infrastructure ensures these innovations are performant, scalable, and ready for production.

The fusion of Wall Street assets with Web3 rails is no longer theoretical — it’s live, composable, and growing fast. For those building the future of finance, xStocks on Solana are the foundation layer, and Quicknode is the engine driving it forward.