Nasdaq Invests $100M in Kraken Parent Company Payward Amid Tokenization Push

Nasdaq is deepening its partnership with Payward, the parent company of crypto exchange Kraken. The investment is part of Nasdaq's push into tokenized equities trading.

Nasdaq's venture capital division is investing $100 million in Payward, valuing it at $21 billion. This move is expected to accelerate the development of financial infrastructure supporting tokenized equities trading, clearing, and settlement.

The two companies are working together on the Nasdaq Equity Token (NET) framework. They aim to launch NETs in the second quarter of 2027. The partnership will also advance a new market surveillance agreement and support transfer between permissioned institutional systems and decentralized networks.