Nasdaq Invests $100M in Kraken Parent at $21B — SkimNews
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- Nasdaq's venture arm invested $100 million in Payward, the parent of cryptocurrency exchange Kraken, at a $21 billion valuation reported by Bloomberg.
- As part of the deal, Kraken will offer tokenized versions of Nasdaq-listed stocks on its own platform, while Payward will adopt Nasdaq's surveillance technology across its crypto, equities, tokenized equities, futures and options venues.
- The investment builds on Nasdaq's March partnership with Payward and follows a month after Nasdaq announced plans to acquire Level Markets as part of its 'always-on' markets push; Nasdaq filed a tokenization rule-change proposal with the SEC a year ago.
- Earlier this month, Kraken partnered with the London Stock Exchange to launch 24/5 trading of tokenized UK equities tracking major UK stocks starting in 2027.
- In April, Deutsche Börse invested $200 million in Payward — making Nasdaq the second major exchange operator to take a stake in Kraken's parent this year.
- According to RWA.xyz, the total distributed value of tokenized stocks now exceeds $2.9 billion, up 7.4% over the past month.
Why it matters: Nasdaq is the second major exchange operator to take a stake in Payward this year, following Deutsche Börse's $200M April investment. Payward gains Nasdaq-grade surveillance across crypto, equities, and derivatives, while Kraken becomes the distribution front for tokenized Nasdaq stocks. The tokenized stock market now sits above $2.9B, up 7.4% in a month per RWA.xyz.
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