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09/10/2026

Nasdaq Invests $100M in Kraken Parent Payward at $21B Valuation

What happened: Nasdaq’s venture arm invested $100 million in Payward, Kraken’s parent company, at a $21 billion valuation—up modestly from $20 billion in late 2025.

Nasdaq Invests $100M in Kraken Parent Payward at $21B Valuation

What happened: Nasdaq’s venture arm invested $100 million in Payward, Kraken’s parent company, at a $21 billion valuation—up modestly from $20 billion in late 2025. The deal extends a strategic partnership to distribute Nasdaq-listed tokenized stocks with full voting rights to Kraken users. The firms are jointly developing infrastructure to transfer tokenized equities between traditional and permissionless markets, with Payward’s IPO now targeted for Q2 2027 at the earliest.

Why it matters: Voting-enabled tokenized equities represent a significant evolution in the crypto exchange landscape, potentially setting new standards for real-world asset (RWA) tokenization. Nasdaq’s investment is seen as a bid to shape the tokenized-stock ecosystem, countering rival exchanges’ RWA initiatives. The modest valuation step-up reflects cautious optimism amid regulatory and technical uncertainties in the sector.

Source: CoinDesk