Crypto
Nasdaq Invests $100M in Kraken's Parent Company Payward
Nasdaq's venture arm has invested $100M in Payward, the parent company behind Kraken, as part of a deepening partnership to bring traditional stocks onto blockchain rails.
The collaboration is led by Digital Liquidity Networks, a unit focused on building market infrastructure for efficient capital and liquidity movement. The Equity Token framework, known as NETs, aims to connect tokenized shares with Payward's existing xStocks ecosystem.
The two firms are targeting a second-quarter 2027 launch window for NETs, with ongoing work on global distribution, trading, and post-trade capabilities.