$100 million Nasdaq investment in Kraken parent Payward
The New York stock exchange's venture arm has agreed to invest $100 million in Payward, the parent company of cryptocurrency exchange Kraken, to deepen their joint development of tokenized equity infrastructure.
Nasdaq announced on September 10 that its venture capital subsidiary approved a $100 million investment in Payward. This deal marks the latest step in a strategic partnership between the two entities, which was originally established in March to create infrastructure linking regulated equity markets with blockchain networks. Payward operates Kraken and manages other trading platforms including NinjaTrader, Breakout, xStocks, and CF Benchmarks.
The investment aims to build systems allowing tokenized assets to trade and settle outside conventional market hours while maintaining regulatory compliance. Both parties intend to launch Nasdaq Equity Tokens, known as NETs, on Payward's xStocks platform in the second quarter of 2027. These tokens are designed to ensure investor transparency, market integrity, and liquidity.
Arjun Sethi, Co-CEO of Payward, stated that the next phase involves moving these tokens onto trading rails that operate continuously while preserving shareholder rights. Financial details regarding Nasdaq's specific stake percentage or whether the funding consists entirely of new shares were not disclosed at the time of the announcement. The collaboration focuses on creating an equities transformation gateway to move tokenized securities between permissioned financial systems and permissionless blockchain environments.
