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Payward isn’t playing small. The Wyoming-based parent of Kraken has spent billions over the past two years buying up companies, cutting deals with Nasdaq and the London Stock Exchange, and quietly turning itself into something far bigger than a crypto exchange.
Co-CEO Arjun Sethi calls it a “one ledger” system. The idea is pretty straightforward: let assets move freely between trading, banking, and asset management without the usual delays that come from traditional intermediary banking. No waiting three days for a wire. No siloed accounts. Everything lives on a single infrastructure layer, and Kraken is just one face of it. Payward’s ambition runs a lot deeper than the exchange most people know. The firm wants to unify trading through Kraken, retail banking, asset management, and business-to-business services under one roof — and it’s spending heavily to get there.
Two Billion Dollars in Deals
The acquisitions tell the story fast. Payward spent $1.5 billion to buy NinjaTrader, picking up U.S. futures brokerage capabilities in one move. Then came Bitnomial for $550 million, which bolstered Payward’s derivatives infrastructure. That’s $2.05 billion in two deals alone, and the company isn’t done. In Europe, Payward is working to acquire a bank — though specific details on that one remain undisclosed. No name, no price tag, no timeline confirmed publicly.
And then there’s Nasdaq. Payward secured a $100 million investment from the exchange giant, with plans to launch Nasdaq Equity Tokens. Payward provides the trading and post-trade infrastructure for that product. The London Stock Exchange collaboration is also in the works, focused on tokenized public equities — but that one is still pending regulatory approval, so it’s not a done deal yet.
Unclear how quickly the European bank acquisition closes. But the direction is obvious.
Payward Services: Selling the Plumbing
Here’s where it gets interesting. Payward is taking the internal systems it built for Kraken and selling access to them. The division is called Payward Services, and it offers banks, fintechs, and brokerages a set of APIs covering custody, liquidity, compliance, and settlement. At least 25 companies are set to launch products built on that infrastructure.
That’s a pretty significant shift. It means Payward can grow its footprint without every new customer ever touching Kraken directly. A regional bank in Europe could use Payward’s custody rails without its retail clients knowing Kraken exists. That’s the bet — build the plumbing, then charge everyone who needs it.
The model isn’t totally new to finance. Core banking software providers have done versions of this for decades. But doing it with crypto-native infrastructure, wrapped in regulatory compliance layers, is harder. Payward seems to think it’s cracked enough of that problem to sell it externally. Twenty-five companies signed up suggests it’s not just a pitch deck.
Asset Management and the IPO Question
Payward is also formalizing its asset management side. It has long offered custody, staking, and yield products, but now it’s building a proper platform to house multiple managers and asset classes in one place. The goal is to let assets stay inside Payward’s ecosystem while giving clients access to structured products and tokenized equities.
Partnering with Bitwise, Payward wants to offer an expanded range of investment strategies. Traditional and tokenized assets on the same platform, managed through the same infrastructure. That’s the pitch to institutional clients who want crypto exposure but don’t want to bolt on five different vendors to get it.
And then there’s the IPO. Payward is preparing for a potential public listing, though timing is still uncertain. The company says it’s prioritizing profitability and business growth before pulling that trigger. So it’s probably not imminent, but it’s clearly on the table. Going public would give Payward a currency for further acquisitions and raise its profile with the institutional clients it’s chasing.
What’s different about Payward’s approach compared to competitors is the multi-brand structure. Rather than forcing everything under the Kraken name, the company is building a regulated infrastructure stack that can support multiple brands and serve different customer segments. Other financial companies can use Payward’s rails without ever co-branding with Kraken. That widens the addressable market considerably.
Payward also says it uses a quantitative framework to assess acquisition targets, looking specifically for companies that fill infrastructure gaps and meet existing customer demand. NinjaTrader and Bitnomial both fit that logic — futures and derivatives were holes in the product map, and both deals patched them fast.
The Nasdaq partnership is probably the most visible signal of where Payward wants to sit in the financial world. Nasdaq Equity Tokens, with Payward running the back-end, puts a crypto-native infrastructure provider at the center of what could become a mainstream equity product. Whether regulators move fast enough to make that real is another question entirely.
At least 25 companies are already building on Payward Services infrastructure.
Frequently Asked Questions
How much has Payward spent on acquisitions?
Payward spent $1.5 billion to acquire NinjaTrader and $550 million to acquire Bitnomial, totaling over $2 billion across those two deals alone.
What is Payward Services and who uses it?
Payward Services offers banks, fintechs, and brokerages API access to custody, liquidity, compliance, and settlement infrastructure, with at least 25 companies set to launch products using it.
Why It Matters
This strategic move by Payward underscores the growing trend among crypto platforms to diversify their offerings and integrate more deeply into the traditional financial system. By creating a seamless "one ledger" system, they aim to enhance user experience and efficiency, potentially positioning themselves as a formidable competitor not just within the crypto space, but also against established financial institutions. This approach may signal a shift towards greater legitimacy and acceptance of digital assets in mainstream finance.
