BNY Weighs Digital Asset Infrastructure Deal with Kraken Parent Payward

BNY Mellon, one of the largest custody banks in the world, is in talks with Payward, the parent company of crypto exchange Kraken, to form a broad partnership covering digital assets and traditional financial market infrastructure, according to a report from CoinDesk. The potential agreement could span crypto products, custody, wealth management, trading, payments, and infrastructure offered through Payward Services, the company's business-to-business platform for banks, exchanges, and asset managers. Discussions remain ongoing and may not result in a deal. If a partnership is formed, it could resemble Payward's existing agreement with Nasdaq, which involves the development of operational and commercial infrastructure for Nasdaq Equity Tokens. The launch of these tokens is targeted for the second quarter of 2027. Payward will connect Nasdaq's tokenized equities framework with its xStocks infrastructure and adopt Nasdaq's market-surveillance technology across its trading venues.

BNY Mellon has been expanding its own digital asset operations, including work around tokenized deposits and onchain settlement for institutional clients. Payward has broadened its business beyond Kraken's original spot crypto business, spanning derivatives, tokenized equities, custody, staking, payments, and traditional securities. The company has also struck agreements with other major financial institutions, including SoFi, to connect its products with established financial networks. Payward's xStocks infrastructure has become a central part of this strategy, with over $25 billion in transaction volume, including more than $4 billion settled onchain, as it began working with Nasdaq on infrastructure linking regulated and permissionless tokenized equity markets.