- Lead. Nasdaq Ventures has committed $100 million to Payward, the parent company of crypto exchange Kraken, giving the incumbent exchange a direct stake in the future of on-chain stock trading.
- Fact. The investment values Payward at $21 billion and expands an earlier partnership, with tokenized Nasdaq equities — called Nasdaq Equity Tokens (NETs) — slated to launch in Q2 2027 carrying shareholder voting rights equivalent to traditional shares.
- Stake. NETs represent a structural bridge between regulated public-equity markets and blockchain settlement infrastructure, arriving at a moment when the CLARITY Act is advancing toward a Senate cloture vote.
What the Deal Creates
The partnership, announced on September 10, extends an existing collaboration between the two firms and adds substantive capital alongside it. Under the expanded arrangement, Kraken’s platform will serve as a distribution channel for tokenized versions of Nasdaq-listed stocks, allowing retail and institutional buyers to hold and trade those positions on-chain while preserving shareholder rights.
Payward co-CEO Arjun Sethi framed the case for on-chain settlement in concrete terms: “Cutting that wait from two days to one in 2024 released $3 billion. Onchain settlement removes the wait.” The reference is to the SEC’s 2024 move from T+2 to T+1 settlement, which freed up collateral across the system. Atomic on-chain settlement would, in theory, eliminate that wait entirely.
Nasdaq President Tal Cohen described the deal as defining “the next era of market evolution,” adding that the goal is capital and assets moving “across the financial system with durable liquidity.” As part of the agreement, Payward will adopt Nasdaq’s market surveillance technology across all its trading venues — crypto, equities, tokenized equities, futures, and options — a provision that signals regulatory readiness ahead of the CLARITY Act’s September 15 cloture vote in the Senate.
Valuation and Market Context
The $21 billion valuation implied by the deal reflects how much the calculus around crypto infrastructure has shifted. Bitcoin has traded above $80,000 for most of the year; spot Bitcoin ETFs posted their strongest month of 2026 in August, drawing in institutional flows that have begun to stabilise the broader market. Coinbase shares have rallied roughly 10% in September alone, reflecting renewed institutional demand for crypto-adjacent equities.
The Nasdaq-Payward structure is distinct from the more speculative end of the tokenization space. NETs will represent securities already subject to SEC registration, not synthetic wrappers or unregulated instruments. That distinction matters for institutional adoption and likely smooths the regulatory path, particularly if the CLARITY Act passes and establishes clearer rules for digital asset classification.
A Competitive Race
Nasdaq is not alone in pursuing this ground. European exchanges have piloted tokenized bond issuance under EU DLT Pilot Regime licences, and both the London Stock Exchange and Deutsche Börse have published roadmaps for tokenized equity settlement. The Q2 2027 launch timeline for NETs is therefore competitive, not leisurely.
For Kraken, the deal resolves a long-standing strategic question. The platform built its reputation on crypto-native assets but has been pushing into regulated securities trading for years. A formal distribution channel for tokenized Nasdaq listings gives it a regulated product that institutional clients can hold alongside traditional positions — and gives Nasdaq a retail-facing pipeline it did not previously have. The market surveillance agreement further reduces the compliance risk that has historically kept institutional allocators away from crypto venues.