Nasdaq invests $100M in Kraken parent at $21B valuation: Report
Nasdaq’s venture arm invested $100 million in Payward, the parent company of crypto exchange Kraken, as part of an expansion into tokenized assets. The deal, disclosed in a Payward announcement, includes plans for Kraken to offer tokenized versions of Nasdaq-listed stocks and to adopt Nasdaq’s surveillance technology across multiple trading venues.
Why It Matters
The investment signals a major traditional exchange moving deeper into tokenization and ‘always-on’ markets, combining capital, surveillance tools and distribution to scale tokenized stock products. It follows other exchange investments and regulatory filings that suggest increasing institutional engagement with blockchain-based securities.
Key Facts
- Investor: Nasdaq Ventures (Nasdaq’s venture arm)
- Amount invested: $100 million
- Target company: Payward (parent company of Kraken)
- Reported valuation: $21 billion (reported to Bloomberg by people familiar with the matter)
- Product plans: Kraken will offer tokenized versions of Nasdaq-listed stocks on its platform as part of the deal.
Nasdaq’s venture unit has purchased a $100 million stake in Payward, the corporate parent of cryptocurrency exchange Kraken, the exchange operator said in a Thursday announcement. The agreement expands an existing relationship between the firms and obliges Kraken to list tokenized versions of stocks that trade on Nasdaq.
Payward also agreed to implement Nasdaq’s surveillance technology across its crypto, equities, tokenized equities, futures and options venues, the announcement said. People familiar with the transaction told Bloomberg the investment values Payward at about $21 billion; Cointelegraph reported it had sought comment from Nasdaq but had not received a reply prior to publication.
The investment follows a series of moves by traditional exchanges into tokenization and continuous trading models. Nasdaq in recent weeks outlined plans to buy Level Markets to advance “always-on” markets, and it filed a tokenization proposal with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission about a year ago. Kraken has separately partnered with the London Stock Exchange to provide 24/5 trading of tokenized UK stocks beginning in 2027.
Other exchange operators have made similar bets: in April, Deutsche Börse invested $200 million in Payward to broaden access to blockchain-based securities and tokenized products. Market data compiled by RWA.xyz shows the distributed value of tokenized stocks exceeds $2.9 billion, a 7.4% increase over the past month, underscoring growing activity in the sector.
Keep Reading
India’s Arya.ag to put grain ownership records on Avalanche
Bitcoin sell-side risk returns to rare lows as $80K sellers fade from view
Bitcoin Rally Cools, But a Golden Cross Is Coming
