Nasdaq Invests $100M in Kraken Parent Payward

Nasdaq’s venture arm is investing $100 million in Payward, the parent company of cryptocurrency exchange Kraken, in a deal that values the firm at $21 billion. The investment deepens a partnership aimed at developing infrastructure for trading tokenized equities. According to reports, the investment from Nasdaq’s venture arm is part of a broader strategy to capture investor interest in blockchain-based assets and compete with crypto-native platforms. The partnership between Nasdaq and Payward, initially announced in March, focuses on building infrastructure that will allow Nasdaq Equity Tokens (NETs) to trade and settle outside conventional market hours while preserving regulatory compliance and market safeguards. Payward’s existing xStocks platform will be used to facilitate these trades. Nasdaq intends for its equity tokens to retain the same voting rights as ordinary shares, distinguishing them from many existing tokenized equity products that primarily offer price exposure. The design emphasizes issuer control and the preservation of shareholder rights, including those related to corporate actions and proxy voting.