Nasdaq Puts $100m into Kraken as Tokenised Stocks Gain Traction

Nasdaq's investment in Kraken is confirmed to be $100m, but its valuation of Payward, the parent company of crypto exchange Kraken, remains unconfirmed at $21bn.

The announcement from Nasdaq Ventures, the exchange operator's venture arm, revealed a deeper partnership between the two firms to develop tokenised stocks, with a target launch in the second quarter of 2027.

This is not the first time an established exchange group has taken a stake in a crypto exchange this year; Deutsche Börse invested $200m in Payward in April, valuing it at $13.3bn.

Nasdaq's quarterly net income has climbed steadily from $234m in Q1 2024 to $507m in the quarter ended June 2026, with revenue over the same period increasing from $1.67bn to $2.53bn a quarter.