BNY in talks with Kraken parent Payward over infrastructure partnership

Custody banking giant BNY is in talks with Payward, the Wyoming-based parent company of crypto exchange Kraken, over a broad partnership spanning digital assets and financial-market infrastructure, according to two people familiar with the matter.

The potential agreement could cover areas including crypto products, custody, wealth management, trading, payments and infrastructure, the people said. These offerings are provided through Payward Services, the company’s business-to-business platform for banks, exchanges and asset managers.

Elements of the proposed partnership could resemble the infrastructure component of Payward’s recent agreement with Nasdaq, one of the people said, speaking on condition of anonymity because the talks are private.

Discussions are ongoing, and there is no guarantee an agreement will be reached.

Both Payward and BNY declined to comment.

A deal with BNY would further Payward’s push to connect its digital-asset operations with established financial institutions. BNY, formerly known as Bank of New York Mellon, provides custody, asset servicing, clearing and wealth-management services to institutional clients.

BNY has also been developing tokenized deposits designed to support near-real-time onchain settlement between institutional market participants, part of a broader push by the bank into digital-asset infrastructure.

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.