Nasdaq has invested $100 million in Kraken parent Payward at a reported $21 billion valuation, expanding their partnership around tokenized stocks and always-on markets.
Nasdaq is investing $100 million in Payward, the parent company of cryptocurrency exchange Kraken, as traditional financial markets accelerate their shift toward tokenized equities and blockchain-based trading.
The investment, made through Nasdaq’s venture arm, values Payward at approximately $21 billion, according to people familiar with the matter cited by Bloomberg. The deal also expands a partnership between Nasdaq and Payward focused on building infrastructure for tokenized stocks and always-on markets.
As part of the agreement, Kraken plans to offer tokenized versions of Nasdaq-listed stocks on its platform, bringing traditional equities further into the crypto trading ecosystem.
The investment represents a major step in Nasdaq’s broader tokenization strategy.
Under the partnership, Payward will integrate Nasdaq’s market surveillance technology across its crypto, equities, tokenized-equity, futures and options venues. The goal is to bring more institutional-grade monitoring and market infrastructure into blockchain-based markets.
The development comes as exchanges increasingly view tokenization as a way to extend traditional financial markets beyond their current trading hours.
Instead of restricting stock trading to conventional market sessions, tokenized equities can potentially operate across blockchain networks with much longer trading windows.
This is also where Nasdaq’s partnership with Payward becomes important. Kraken already has experience distributing tokenized equities through its xStocks ecosystem, while Nasdaq brings established capital-markets infrastructure and surveillance capabilities.
The $100 million investment gives Payward an implied valuation of approximately $21 billion.
That is significant because Payward has increasingly positioned itself as more than a traditional cryptocurrency exchange. The company is expanding across crypto trading, derivatives, payments and tokenized financial products.
Payward's Q2 2026 financial results showed $508 million in adjusted revenue, up 17% year over year. The company also reported $40 billion in assets on its platform and 6.6 million funded accounts.
The company has also continued to expand through acquisitions and partnerships. In April, Payward agreed to acquire Bitnomial in a deal valuing its equity at $20 billion at the time.
The latest Nasdaq investment therefore arrives as Payward builds a broader financial infrastructure business around Kraken.
The Nasdaq deal builds on a partnership announced in March, when Payward and Nasdaq agreed to develop a gateway connecting permissioned tokenized-equity markets with permissionless blockchain networks.
Payward said at the time that its xStocks infrastructure had surpassed $25 billion in transaction volume, including more than $4 billion settled on-chain, with over 85,000 unique holders.
The company's tokenization strategy has continued to expand since then.
Earlier this month, Payward and the London Stock Exchange announced plans to tokenize the 100 largest LSE-listed companies as xStocks, subject to regulatory approval. The partnership also involves plans for 24-hour trading through the LSE's planned LSE 24 venue.
That initiative is expected to give investors access to tokenized representations of major UK equities while extending trading beyond traditional market schedules.
Nasdaq's investment in Payward also fits into a wider push toward 24/7 or always-on markets.
The exchange recently shared plans to acquire Level Markets as part of that strategy. It also submitted a tokenization proposal to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission last year.
The objective is increasingly clear: traditional exchanges are exploring how blockchain technology can support securities trading without abandoning existing market infrastructure.
For Nasdaq, working with Kraken provides access to crypto-native technology and an established digital-asset user base. For Payward, the relationship provides deeper access to traditional capital-markets infrastructure.
The partnership could therefore become a bridge between regulated securities markets and blockchain-based trading venues.
Nasdaq is not the first major traditional exchange operator to invest in Payward.
In April, Deutsche Börse invested $200 million in Payward as part of its effort to expand access to blockchain-based securities and tokenized investment products.
The growing involvement of major exchange operators highlights how tokenization is moving beyond an experimental crypto narrative.
Traditional financial institutions are increasingly building partnerships with crypto-native companies rather than treating blockchain markets as a separate industry.
Related: The Clarity Act Slips to September as Banks Build Tokenized Money Anyway
The Nasdaq-Payward investment arrives as the tokenized-stocks market expands.
Data compiled by RWA.xyz puts the current distributed value of tokenized stocks at more than $2.9 billion, representing a 7.4% increase over the past month.
Although that market remains small compared with traditional global equity markets, its growth is attracting increasingly large financial institutions.
The appeal is not limited to 24/7 trading. Tokenized equities can also provide blockchain-based settlement, interoperability with decentralized finance and potentially broader access to financial assets across jurisdictions.
That combination is pushing tokenized stocks toward the center of the broader real-world asset narrative.
Related: Robinhood Chain’s TVL All Time High
The Nasdaq investment gives both companies a stronger position as traditional equities move onto blockchain infrastructure.
For Nasdaq, Payward offers access to crypto native technology and a platform already serving millions of users. For Kraken, Nasdaq provides institutional market infrastructure and credibility as it expands further into tokenized securities.
The larger trend is even more important.
Traditional exchanges are no longer simply watching the tokenization market develop. Nasdaq, Deutsche Börse and the London Stock Exchange are increasingly building partnerships and infrastructure around blockchain-based securities.
With Payward now valued at roughly $21 billion following Nasdaq's investment, the deal signals that major financial institutions increasingly view tokenized assets as part of the future market structure rather than a niche crypto experiment.
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