TheBlock
Nasdaq Ventures has agreed to invest $100 million in Payward, the parent company of crypto exchange Kraken, valuing the firm at $21 billion according to Bloomberg. The deal deepens a partnership announced in March 2026 around an equities transformation gateway that links traditional market plumbing to blockchain settlement.
Under the expanded arrangement, Payward will roll out Nasdaq's market surveillance technology across its portfolio of trading venues, spanning crypto, equities, tokenized equities, futures and options. The companies are also advancing Nasdaq Equity Tokens (NETs), with a targeted launch in the second quarter of 2027. The token design is being built to plug into Payward's xStocks ecosystem for tokenized equity products.
Why it matters
More than $2 trillion of stock trades clear through the US system each day, and Payward Co-CEO Arjun Sethi framed the partnership around compressing that settlement timeline. "Onchain settlement removes the wait," Sethi said, with the next phase designed to advance NETs onto rails that do not close while preserving shareholder rights. Nasdaq President Tal Cohen called the expanded relationship a reflection of Nasdaq's conviction that Payward can help build infrastructure that supports capital movement without sacrificing trust or transparency. Surveillance tech from a regulated exchange operator landing inside a crypto venue's full product stack is the kind of integration that traditionally separates pilot programs from production-grade market structure.
Market impact
The valuation step-up to $21 billion puts Payward among the highest-valued private crypto firms globally, and the surveillance integration sets a new operational bar for hybrid venues that want to court institutional flow. Watch for rival exchanges to either license similar tooling or face harder questions from compliance teams about how their own order books are monitored. The NETs launch timeline in Q2 2027 is the concrete milestone to track; any slippage there would test whether the tokenized-equity thesis is gaining real traction or stalling at the integration stage.
Frequently asked questions
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How much is Nasdaq investing in Kraken parent Payward?
Nasdaq Ventures agreed to invest $100 million in Payward, valuing the Kraken parent at $21 billion according to Bloomberg sources.
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What is the partnership between Nasdaq and Payward focused on?
The expanded partnership centers on tokenized equities and market infrastructure, including the planned Nasdaq Equity Tokens (NETs) launch in Q2 2027 and Payward's adoption of Nasdaq's market surveillance technology across its trading venues.
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What are Nasdaq Equity Tokens (NETs)?
NETs are Nasdaq's tokenized equity products designed to settle on blockchain rails via Payward's xStocks ecosystem. They are targeted for launch in the second quarter of 2027.
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Why is Payward adopting Nasdaq's surveillance technology?
Payward will roll out Nasdaq's market surveillance across its crypto, equities, tokenized equities, futures and options venues, integrating a regulated exchange operator's monitoring stack into a crypto-native venue's full product book.
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When did the Nasdaq and Payward partnership begin?
Nasdaq and Payward first announced their partnership in March 2026, when the two firms said they would build an equities transformation gateway linking regulated markets with blockchain networks.
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