Nasdaq Invests $100 Million in Kraken Parent Payward at $21B Valuation

Nasdaq is investing $100 million in Payward, which is valued at $21 billion

The US stock exchange group Nasdaq has invested $100 million in Payward – the parent company of the cryptocurrency platform Kraken – valuing it at $21 billion. The deal strengthens the collaboration between the two companies in the field of financial asset tokenisation and the integration of traditional market infrastructure with blockchain networks.

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The investment comes against the backdrop of expanding cooperation between Nasdaq and Payward, according to Bloomberg. In March 2026, the companies announced the creation of an infrastructure designed to link regulated markets for tokenised shares with decentralised blockchain networks.

The project is based on xStocks technology, developed by Kraken. It is designed to enable the issuance and trading of tokenised versions of shares in a blockchain environment. According to Payward, by March the volume of xStocks transactions had exceeded $25 billion, of which more than $4 billion were conducted directly on the blockchain.

Nasdaq, for its part, is developing its own approach to share tokenisation, focused on preserving issuers’ control, complying with current regulatory requirements and safeguarding the rights associated with the underlying securities. Nasdaq announced this spring that the relevant infrastructure is expected to launch in the first half of 2027.

For Payward, the partnership with Nasdaq forms part of a broader strategy to transform Kraken from a cryptocurrency trading platform into a financial infrastructure company. In the first quarter of 2026, Payward reported $507 million in adjusted revenue, $357 billion in total trading volume on the platform and 6.1 million funded accounts. The company is also expanding into derivatives, tokenisation, payments and institutional services.

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