Nasdaq has invested $100 million in Kraken parent company Payward at a $21 billion valuation, as reported by Bloomberg. The investment comes from Nasdaq's venture investment arm and expands upon a partnership the two companies established in March. The deal values Payward at a modest increase from its $20 billion valuation set in November 2025, when Jane Street, DRW Venture Capital and Citadel Securities backed the company. This strategic collaboration aims to create robust infrastructure for trading tokenized equities, with the companies planning to launch Nasdaq Equity Tokens (NETs) in the second quarter of 2027 using Payward's xStocks platform. As per Bloomberg, the companies are working toward a second-quarter 2027 launch for NETs, while Payward will deploy Nasdaq's market surveillance technology across trading venues covering crypto, equities, tokenized equities, futures and options. The investment builds on a partnership announced in March, when Nasdaq and Payward began developing infrastructure designed to connect regulated equity markets with blockchain networks through Payward's xStocks ecosystem.
According to reports from BeInCrypto, Kraken has informed customers that withdrawals are currently experiencing delays, marking the second service fault disclosed by the exchange in a single day. The notice was posted shortly after 2 p.m. UTC on Tuesday, with the exchange identifying the cause of the issue but providing no timeline for resolution, affected coin list, or detailed account of what specifically broke. As per BeInCrypto, the company's status page stated: "We are aware of a temporary hiccup affecting withdrawals, which may be briefly delayed at this time."
As reported by BeInCrypto, the exchange's status board currently lists 23 of its 725 funding services as degraded, with most of the damage predating Tuesday's incident. Kraken defines funding as money moving in and out, encompassing both deposits and withdrawals, while trading, the website, and data feeds all remain operational during this period. The exchange has not specified which specific coins are affected by the current withdrawal delays. Among the networks confirmed as impacted are Akash, Cosmos, Celestia, and dYdX.
Payward's latest financial results show adjusted revenue of $508 million for the second quarter, representing a 17% increase from the previous year. However, adjusted EBITDA fell to $23 million from $80 million, while total platform transaction volume declined 18% to $310 billion. The company ended the quarter with 6.6 million funded accounts and $40 billion in assets on its platforms. Asset-based and other revenue represented 60% of total revenue, compared with 55% a year earlier. Payward has been actively expanding beyond its core spot crypto exchange business, completing its acquisition of Bitnomial in May for up to $550 million in cash and stock, giving Kraken access to a regulated U.S. derivatives structure. The company has also acquired Backed Finance, the infrastructure used for xStocks issuance, and now operates a wider portfolio including Kraken, NinjaTrader, Breakout and CF Benchmarks.
The investment builds on significant regulatory progress, as Nasdaq received approval from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to allow certain stocks to be traded and settled in tokenized form just after the collaboration announcement. As reported by Bloomberg, Payward confidentially submitted a draft S-1 registration statement to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission in November 2025, though the company has not publicly disclosed a proposed ticker, share price, number of shares or exchange for a potential listing. The partnership links Nasdaq's regulated systems with Kraken's xStocks infrastructure through an Equities Transformation Gateway (ETG) announced in March. In this process, issuers would maintain control over their securities while the rights associated with those tokens would be identical to those of a share of common stock. The blockchain records would connect directly with official shareholder registers, protecting governance, voting, and corporate actions. Established exchange operators are developing tokenized securities and related infrastructure to capture growing investor interest in blockchain-based assets and compete with crypto-native platforms.
