Nasdaq invests $100M in Kraken parent Payward

Nasdaq has invested $100 million in Payward, the parent company of crypto exchange Kraken, at a $21 billion valuation. The investment deepens a strategic partnership aimed at bringing tokenized, voting-enabled equities to crypto exchange users, with Nasdaq calling tokenization "just the mainstream now."

• The capital injection gives Payward fresh backing while its widely anticipated IPO remains delayed to Q2 2027.