Kraken parent Payward expands toward financial infrastructure model

Payward, Kraken’s parent company, has spent billions of dollars on acquisitions and investments over the past two years as it pushes a strategy to move beyond an exchange and integrate trading, banking, asset management, and institutional services into a single financial infrastructure platform, CoinDesk reported. The company is expanding across four business pillars: the Kraken exchange, banking, asset management, and its B2B infrastructure unit, Payward Services. To enter the U.S. derivatives market, Payward acquired NinjaTrader for $1.5 billion, and this year it bought Bitnomial, which owns a derivatives exchange and clearinghouse, for $550 million. In Europe, the company is also pursuing a bank acquisition. Payward is also strengthening partnerships with financial institutions in tokenization. Nasdaq invested $100 million in Payward and expanded cooperation on stock tokens and market surveillance technology, according to CoinDesk. The two sides are targeting the second quarter of 2027 for the launch of stock tokens. The London Stock Exchange is also reviewing a stock-token business with Payward.