BNY in talks with Kraken parent Payward over infrastructure partnership

Custody bank BNY Mellon is engaged in private talks with Payward, the Wyoming-based parent company of crypto exchange Kraken, about a potentially broad infrastructure partnership, according to people familiar with the discussions. The contemplated arrangement could cover a range of services offered via Payward Services, the company’s business-to-business arm that supplies banks, exchanges and asset managers with custody, trading and payments infrastructure.

Sources said the partnership could include offerings across crypto products, custody, wealth management, trading and payments. One person described elements of the proposal as similar to the infrastructure piece of Payward’s recent commercial deal with Nasdaq, though they spoke on condition of anonymity because the negotiations are private. Both firms have declined to comment and there is no assurance talks will result in a binding agreement.

The conversations come as Payward expands its footprint beyond spot exchange operations into a broader financial-services platform. Payward’s recent moves include a Nasdaq Ventures investment of $100 million at a reported $21 billion valuation tied to collaboration on tokenized equities; the companies expect to launch Nasdaq Equity Tokens in the second quarter of 2027. Payward has also been building out its product set through acquisitions, including deals announced for Bitnomial and Reap and an earlier acquisition of NinjaTrader in 2025.

BNY Mellon has been advancing its own tokenization and onchain capabilities, including work on tokenized deposits intended to enable near-real-time settlement between institutional market participants. A commercial partnership with Payward, if completed, would represent another step toward integrating traditional custody and settlement services with crypto-native trading and infrastructure technology.