Kamino (KMNO), the leading decentralized lending protocol on the Solana blockchain, has announced a groundbreaking integration of tokenized stocks as a collateral option. This pivotal move, revealed in an announcement on Friday, positions Kamino as the first major borrow/lend protocol in Decentralized Finance (DeFi) to onboard tokenized equities, signaling a significant step forward for the industry.
Kamino's chosen tool for this integration is xStocks, an on-chain trading feature already utilized by centralized exchanges like Kraken and Bybit, and powered by Chainlink’s robust data standards. The Kamino v2 architecture now includes a dedicated xStocks Market, designed to enable users to borrow stablecoins against their xStocks collateral. The feature will initially launch with tokenized Apple equity (APPLx), with plans for gradual expansion to include other tokenized assets.
"Ultimately, the vision is for Kamino to be the full-suite, onchain asset marketplace, where users can swap their assets, borrow against their assets, or leverage their exposure with margin," the Kamino team stated. They emphasized that "Permissionless financial rails are maturing, and beginning to encompass TradFi use cases in a way that is more efficient, accessible, and transparent."
The Growing Landscape of Tokenized Equity
In recent weeks, the concept of tokenized equity—on-chain representations of public or private corporate shares—has seen a surge in interest and significant announcements from various firms. This includes Kraken, which recently revealed plans to offer its EU clients the ability to trade xStocks on Solana. Similarly, Robinhood is developing an in-house solution on the Ethereum scaling layer Arbitrum for private stock.
Tokenized equity has long been considered a "Holy Grail" for the expanding real-world asset (RWA) economy. However, its widespread adoption has faced hurdles, primarily due to complex regulatory concerns and the necessity of securing buy-in from traditional businesses. For instance, Commissioner Hester Peirce, a generally pro-crypto voice from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), recently tempered expectations in a letter, unequivocally stating, "Tokenized securities are still securities," underscoring the ongoing regulatory scrutiny. Furthermore, OpenAI publicly "slammed" Robinhood's "stock tokens," clarifying it did not endorse or approve any transfers, which prompted Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev to clarify that these on-chain tokens were derivatives, not true equity.
Understanding xStocks and Kamino's Role
xStocks, launched by Backed Finance, are tokenized representations of U.S. stocks and Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs). They are issued as SPL tokens on the Solana blockchain and BEP-20 tokens on the BNB Chain. Each xStock, such as xAAPL or xTSLA, is reportedly backed 1:1 by real shares held by regulated custodians, bringing the benefits of 24/7 trading and fractional ownership on-chain.
"Further than direct retail usability, the integration of xStocks into a lending protocol elevates them into building blocks for new structured products, composable with other protocols and allowing the constitution of complex financial instruments,” Backed noted in a previous blog post. Solana-based decentralized exchanges (DEXes) like Jupiter and Raydium already facilitate lending and liquidity provision.
Kamino Finance, currently the largest money market on Solana, operates as a decentralized liquidity management, lending, and leverage protocol, boasting nearly $3 billion in Total Value Locked (TVL). Kamino expanded its offerings in December with the launch of its "intents-based" swap feature, as first reported by The Block. It's important to note that Kamino's products are not available in the U.S., UK, and other restricted markets.
July 2025, Cryptoniteuae