BNY and Kraken Parent Payward Discuss Broad Digital Asset Infrastructure Partnership
BNY is in talks with Kraken parent Payward over a potential partnership spanning crypto products, custody, wealth management, trading, payments and financial-market infrastructure, according to two people familiar with the discussions, in what could become Payward’s latest bridge into traditional finance.
The discussions remain preliminary, and there is no guarantee that an agreement will be reached. Both BNY and Payward declined to comment.
The potential partnership would center partly on Payward Services, the group’s business-to-business platform for banks, exchanges, fintechs and asset managers. One person familiar with the matter said parts of the proposed arrangement could resemble infrastructure work covered by Payward’s recently expanded relationship with Nasdaq.
What Could BNY Gain From Payward’s Infrastructure?
BNY already provides custody, asset servicing, clearing, payments and wealth-management services to institutional clients, but it has increasingly been extending those businesses onto blockchain infrastructure.
In January, the bank launched a tokenized deposit capability for institutional clients, creating blockchain representations of conventional demand deposits that can be used in collateral, margin and settlement workflows. FinanceFeeds reported that the service initially involved institutions including ICE, Citadel Securities and Circle, with BNY targeting near-real-time movement of bank money between institutional counterparties.
BNY has since expanded deeper into digital assets, including custody, stablecoin services and staking. A partnership with Payward could potentially connect those bank-grade custody and cash rails with trading, payments and blockchain-market infrastructure already used across Payward’s businesses.
The scope under discussion is unusually broad. Rather than focusing on a single custody or execution product, it could link multiple stages of the financial transaction chain, from holding assets and moving cash to trading and post-trade infrastructure.
Investor Takeaway
The strategic value would lie in connecting BNY’s regulated custody and banking infrastructure with Payward’s digital trading and payments stack. Until an agreement is signed, however, the breadth and economics of any partnership remain unknown.
Does the Nasdaq Deal Provide a Template?
Payward’s agreement with Nasdaq offers the clearest indication of how such an institutional partnership could work.
Nasdaq Ventures agreed in September to invest $100 million in Payward while expanding a collaboration around tokenized equities and market infrastructure. FinanceFeeds reported that the investment valued Payward at $21 billion, while the companies also agreed to deepen work on Nasdaq Equity Tokens and deploy Nasdaq’s market-surveillance technology across Payward’s crypto, equities, tokenized-equities, futures and options venues.
The companies are targeting the second quarter of 2027 for Nasdaq Equity Tokens. The planned infrastructure is intended to connect regulated equity markets with Payward’s xStocks ecosystem while retaining issuer control, shareholder rights and conventional market protections.
For BNY, the comparable opportunity would be less about equity issuance and more about institutional custody, cash, payments and settlement. Combining tokenized securities with tokenized deposits could eventually allow both the asset and cash sides of a transaction to move across blockchain-based infrastructure rather than relying entirely on separate legacy systems.
Investor Takeaway
Nasdaq’s investment shows that Payward is increasingly selling infrastructure rather than simply exchange access. A BNY relationship would extend that strategy into custody, institutional cash and potentially wealth management.
Why Is Payward Expanding Beyond Kraken?
Payward has spent the past two years assembling businesses across derivatives, payments, tokenization and traditional securities as it reduces its dependence on spot crypto trading.
The company acquired NinjaTrader for approximately $1.5 billion in 2025, followed by an agreement to acquire Bitnomial for up to $550 million and a $600 million deal for stablecoin-payments company Reap. FinanceFeeds previously detailed how those acquisitions expanded Payward across regulated derivatives and payment infrastructure.
Bitnomial brought a CFTC-regulated U.S. derivatives stack, while Reap added business payments and stablecoin infrastructure. Together with tokenized equities and Payward Services, the acquisitions increasingly make the group resemble a multi-asset financial infrastructure company rather than a standalone cryptocurrency exchange.
Could a BNY Agreement Matter Ahead of a Payward IPO?
The discussions also arrive as Payward continues preparing for a possible public listing. FinanceFeeds reported in September that Payward had pushed its potential IPO to the second quarter of 2027 at the earliest, although the company has not publicly confirmed that timetable.
Institutional partnerships with Nasdaq and potentially BNY could strengthen Payward’s argument that future growth extends beyond crypto trading volumes into infrastructure, payments, derivatives and tokenized capital markets.
Investor Takeaway
The main metric to watch is whether reported discussions turn into contracted infrastructure business with recurring institutional revenue. That would provide stronger evidence that Payward’s diversification strategy can reduce its exposure to crypto trading cycles ahead of any eventual IPO.
