Prominent custody institution BNY is engaged in discussions with Payward, the Wyoming-headquartered parent corporation behind the digital asset exchange Kraken, concerning a comprehensive collaboration touching upon digital currencies and financial market frameworks, according to two individuals knowledgeable about the situation.
The prospective arrangement could encompass fields such as digital asset offerings, safekeeping, private wealth management, trading execution, transaction settlements, and core technical systems, these individuals stated. Such capabilities are delivered through Payward Services, which serves as the firm’s business-to-business enterprise portal catering to traditional banks, trading venues, and investment managers.
Certain aspects of the contemplated alliance might bear similarities to the technological infrastructure portion of Payward’s recent pact with Nasdaq, remarked one of the sources who chose to remain anonymous due to the confidential nature of the negotiations.
Talks remain ongoing, and there is no guarantee that a formal contract will ultimately be established.
Representatives for both Payward and BNY chose not to issue public statements.
Securing an arrangement with BNY would advance Payward’s broader strategy to bridge its digital asset operations with established banking institutions. BNY, previously recognized as the Bank of New York Mellon, supplies safekeeping, asset administration, transaction clearing, and wealth advisory services to corporate clients.
Furthermore, BNY has been actively engineering tokenized deposits designed to facilitate near-instantaneous onchain transaction settlements for institutional market participants, marking one component of the institution’s wider expansion into blockchain-based infrastructure.
In the previous month, Nasdaq Ventures committed to injecting $100 million into Payward at an evaluation of $21 billion while concurrently broadening the entities’ joint efforts regarding tokenized shares.
Under the framework of that accord, Nasdaq and Payward will press forward with building out the operational and business architecture for Nasdaq Equity Tokens. Additionally, Payward plans to integrate Nasdaq’s market surveillance software across all of its digital asset, traditional equity, tokenized share, futures, and options marketplaces.
Both corporations anticipate rolling out Nasdaq Equity Tokens by the second quarter of 2027. This project aims to link Nasdaq’s heavily regulated markets with Payward’s xStocks network while maintaining investor rights, regulatory compliance, and governance for issuers.
Payward oversees the Kraken digital asset exchange alongside a rapidly growing portfolio of trading desks, payment networks, and structural enterprises. Its product suite spans spot trading, financial derivatives, digital shares, custody solutions, staking mechanics, payment gateways, and conventional securities. Through Payward Services, the organization additionally provides technical foundations to commercial banks, financial technology companies, brokerages, and payment processors.
The enterprise has also pursued growth via strategic purchases as it constructs a more expansive financial services ecosystem. During April, Payward agreed to purchase the United States-based crypto derivatives provider Bitnomial for up to $550 million in a cash and equity transaction, which was subsequently followed by a $600 million buyout of stablecoin transaction processor Reap. Those acquisitions occurred on the heels of its roughly $1.5 billion takeover of retail futures platform NinjaTrader in 2025.
Reports surfaced last month indicating that Payward had postponed its targeted initial public offering until the second quarter of 2027 at the earliest, after previously shelving the public listing plans owing to challenging market conditions.
Originally published at https://www.coindesk.com/business/2026/09/30/bny-in-talks-with-kraken-parent-payward-over-infrastructure-partnership.
