Nasdaq Puts $100M into Kraken Parent Company Amid Growing Crypto Interests

Nasdaq is making a significant investment in Kraken's parent company, Payward. The deal will see Nasdaq investing $100 million in Payward, valuing the crypto company at $21 billion. This investment comes as Wall Street increasingly looks to cryptocurrency and related infrastructure.

The partnership between Nasdaq and Payward aims to build out structure for tokenized stocks. Kraken, which is owned by Payward, will distribute Nasdaq's tokenized stocks on its own platform, allowing customers to own NASDAQ-listed stocks in a tokenized form.

This deal follows recent moves by traditional finance firms to tap into the world of cryptocurrency. The New York Stock Exchange has been building a platform for traders to buy and sell tokenized versions of US-listed equities and exchange-traded funds, settling those trades on the blockchain 24/7.