Nasdaq to invest $100M in Kraken parent Payward at $21B valuation, reports say

Nasdaq said it is investing $100 million in Payward, the parent company of crypto exchange Kraken, valuing Payward at $21 billion ^{[1] [2] [3]}.

Multiple reports link the investment to a strategic partnership intended to bring tokenized, voting-enabled equities to crypto exchange users, and to support development of tokenized stock products for round-the-clock trading ^{[1] [3]}.

Decrypt also reported that Deutsche Börse’s April stake implied a $13.3 billion valuation, and that Nasdaq is paying at a higher $21 billion valuation five months later ^[2].

Crypto Briefing and Cointelegraph characterized the Nasdaq-Payward partnership as aimed at accelerating integration between traditional finance and blockchain, including use cases for tokenized equities trading, clearing, and settlement ^{[4] [5] [3]}.