Kraken Parent Payward Bets Billions on Full-Service Financial Infrastructure Push

Payward, the parent of global digital-asset exchange Kraken, is investing billions of dollars as it seeks to transform itself into a full-service financial infrastructure company.

CoinDesk reported on September 26 that Payward co-Chief Executive Officer Arjun Sethi said in an interview that the company is pursuing a so-called "One Ledger" strategy to integrate trading, banking, wealth management and institutional services on a single infrastructure.

To execute that plan, Payward is pursuing large-scale mergers and acquisitions. The company acquired U.S. futures brokerage platform NinjaTrader for $1.5 billion and bought Bitnomial for $550 million, securing derivatives infrastructure. It is also in the final stages of acquiring a Europe-based bank, according to the report.

Payward is also expanding its ties with traditional finance. Nasdaq has invested $100 million in the company, and the two sides are working toward a launch of tokenized stocks in the second quarter of 2027. London Stock Exchange Group is also pursuing cooperation with Payward on tokenized stocks under the xStocks brand.

The company is also ramping up a business that provides outside firms with the financial infrastructure it built for Kraken.

Sethi said Payward is aiming to become a financial infrastructure company rather than remain simply a digital-asset exchange. The company plans to expand beyond tokenized stocks into structured products and credit products.