Backpack launches securities platform blending traditional and tokenized stock trading

Backpack, the crypto exchange founded by former FTX employees, has launched Backpack Securities, a platform that blends traditional and tokenized stock trading.

According to an announcement on Tuesday, the new platform will enable users to buy, hold, and sell real U.S. stocks through regulated brokerage infrastructure while also converting those holdings into tokenized versions that can move freely across blockchain networks. 

“Real equity ownership and blockchain-native access are not competing models; they are two parts of the same financial system,” Backpack CEO Armani Ferrante said in a statement. “We have spent three years building the foundation for this, and are excited to release Backpack Securities to our users.”

The move comes as centralized exchanges in and out of the U.S. continue to add products like yield, derivatives, payments, prediction markets, and tokenized stocks amid a friendlier regulatory environment. This includes major U.S. providers like Coinbase and Kraken, global players like Binance and OKX, as well as DEXes like Hyperliquid and Lighter. 

Robinhood, best known more for its traditional brokerage services, has also launched an Arbitrum-based initiative to offer hundreds of tokenized U.S. stocks and exchange-traded funds. Tokenization allows these assets greater market flexibility, including wider trading hours, easier fractionalization, and integrations with DeFi.

Backpack was founded in late 2023 as a wallet for Solana by the team behind the Mad Lads NFT collection, including Ferrante, a former Solana developer and early Alameda Research employee, and Can Sun, former general counsel for FTX, who testified in the trial against Sam Bankman-Fried. 

The exchange’s new stock offering has two separate, but linked, components. First, a U.S.-regulated brokerage and custodial platform that gives investors genuine ownership of stocks, with the same rights as a traditional broker, including cash dividends, corporate actions, and integration with systems like ACATS and DTCC.

Second, Backpack has partnered with Solana-based tokenization protocol Sunrise to enable users to convert their stock holdings into tokenized securities. These tokens will initially be made transferable, compatible with wallets and DeFi protocols, and tradable 24/7 via Solana, though the announcement suggests the exchange intends to expand to additional blockchains. 

“Backpack was founded on the belief that capital should work as one and move seamlessly across asset types and markets,” Ferrante said. “Backpack Securities is the next expression of that conviction.”

These brokerage services are expected to roll out beginning in June. 

Earlier this year, Backpack floated a plan to offer 37.5% of its total 1 billion exchange token supply for a “post-IPO” company treasury as well as an equity-linked staking model that would reward stakers with 20% of its corporate equity. That came at a time when Backpack was reportedly in talks to raise $50 million in fresh financing at a $1 billion pre-money valuation.

Backpack raised $17 million in Series A funding in 2024, led by Placeholder VC, with support from Robot Ventures, Wintermute, and Selini, among others.