Nasdaq Ventures agreed last month to invest $100 million in Payward at a $21 billion valuation while expanding the companies’ collaboration on tokenized equities.
Under that agreement, Nasdaq and Payward will continue to develop the operational and commercial infrastructure for Nasdaq Equity Tokens. Payward will also adopt Nasdaq’s market-surveillance technology across its crypto, equities, tokenized-equities, futures and options venues.
The companies expect to launch Nasdaq Equity Tokens in the second quarter of 2027. The initiative is intended to connect Nasdaq’s regulated markets with Payward’s xStocks ecosystem while preserving shareholder rights, regulatory protections and issuer control.
Payward operates the crypto exchange Kraken alongside a growing collection of trading, payments and infrastructure businesses. Its products span spot crypto, derivatives, tokenized equities, custody, staking, payments and traditional securities. Through Payward Services, it also offers infrastructure to banks, fintechs, brokerages and payment companies.
The company has also expanded through acquisitions as it builds a broader financial-services platform. Payward agreed in April to acquire U.S. crypto derivatives firm Bitnomial for as much as $550 million and followed that with a $600 million deal for stablecoin-payments company Reap. Those transactions came after its approximately $1.5 billion acquisition of retail futures platform NinjaTrader in 2025.
CoinDesk reported last month that Payward had pushed its planned initial public offering to the second quarter of 2027 at the earliest, after previously shelving the listing due to difficult market conditions.