Nasdaq Invests Heavily in Crypto Exchange Payward

Nasdaq has invested $100 million in Payward, valuing the company at $21 billion. This investment is part of Nasdaq's strategic expansion into the crypto market.

The deal marks the third major exchange operator to take a stake in a crypto-exchange this year. Intercontinental Exchange and Deutsche Börse have also invested in OKX and Payward, respectively.

Payward will apply Nasdaq's market surveillance technology across all its trading platforms, including crypto, equities, tokenized equities, futures, and options. In return, Kraken, which is owned by Payward, will become a distribution point for Nasdaq's planned tokenized stocks.