Nasdaq to invest $100M in Kraken parent Payward

Nasdaq Ventures agreed on Sept. 10 to invest $100 million in Payward, the parent company of Kraken, and Payward will deploy Nasdaq’s market-surveillance technology across a range of trading venues, the companies announced.

The announcement describes an agreement to invest, not a completed transaction. The statement does not disclose a closing date, Payward’s valuation, Nasdaq’s ownership percentage or any governance rights tied to the proposed investment.

Under the arrangement, Payward will adopt Nasdaq’s surveillance stack for activity involving crypto, traditional equities, tokenized equities, futures and options. The tools are intended to monitor trades and other market activity that involve both on-chain and off-chain instruments, according to the announcement.

The firms said they will continue to develop operational and commercial systems for Nasdaq Equity Tokens, or NETs, which Nasdaq has framed as issuer-sponsored tokens that preserve issuer control and the legal rights tied to underlying shares. NETs are targeted for a second-quarter 2027 launch; the tokens are not in circulation today.

The investment adds a financial element to a partnership that began earlier in the year. In March, the companies outlined plans for an equities transformation gateway to connect Nasdaq’s planned issuer-sponsored tokens with Payward’s xStocks tokenized-equity ecosystem in eligible jurisdictions. The current agreement adds capital and a surveillance layer to that framework and makes Payward both a participant in transaction infrastructure and a customer for Nasdaq’s compliance technology.

The announcement does not specify which Payward trading venues will implement the surveillance tools first or provide a timetable for full deployment. It also states that public transaction terms do not change the rights attached to existing third-party tokenized-stock products; those products are distinct from the planned NETs.

Remaining open items include completion of the investment, the timing and scope of surveillance rollout across Payward businesses, and whether the companies meet the stated NETs readiness target in Q2 2027.