Nasdaq Ventures Puts $100 Million Into Kraken Parent Payward, Targets 2027 Launch of Tokenized Stocks

Since Nasdaq and Payward first announced their tokenization partnership in March 2026, the two companies have been building toward a shared goal: putting Nasdaq-listed stocks on a blockchain. On Thursday, September 10, Nasdaq made that relationship official with money behind it.

Nasdaq Ventures, the exchange operator's investment arm, agreed to put $100 million into Payward, the parent company of crypto exchange Kraken, according to Nasdaq's own announcement. Bloomberg, citing people familiar with the matter, reported the deal values Payward at $21 billion. Nasdaq's release does not confirm that number, and as The Defiant pointed out, the company also didn't disclose the size of its equity stake, whether the money buys new or existing shares, or any governance rights attached to the investment.

What Nasdaq Is Actually Buying

The deal expands work on what Nasdaq calls Nasdaq Equity Tokens, or NETs, digital representations of Nasdaq-listed stocks meant to trade on blockchain rails. Nasdaq and Payward are targeting a Q2 2027 launch, per Nasdaq's statement. Payward will also adopt Nasdaq's market-surveillance technology across its own trading venues, spanning crypto, equities, tokenized equities, futures, and options.

Nasdaq President Tal Cohen framed the move as infrastructure-building. "The next era of market evolution will be defined by how efficiently and seamlessly capital and assets move across the financial system with durable liquidity," Cohen said in the statement.

Payward Co-CEO Arjun Sethi made the financial case in dollar terms. More than $2 trillion in stock trades run through the U.S. clearing system daily, netting down roughly 98%, with the clearing house holding $10 billion to $20 billion in collateral while trades wait to settle. Sethi noted that shortening settlement from two days to one in 2024 freed up $3 billion, a figure The Defiant confirmed checks out against the DTCC and SIFMA's T+1 After Action Report. "Onchain settlement removes the wait," Sethi said.

Payward Is Playing the Field

This isn't an exclusive arrangement. Nasdaq's investment lands just nine days after Payward struck a comparable deal with the London Stock Exchange Group, according to The Defiant. Deutsche Börse bought into Payward back in April for $200 million, pricing the company at roughly $13.3 billion, a 33% markdown from the $20 billion valuation Payward carried after raising $800 million in November 2025 from Citadel Securities, Jane Street, and DRW Venture Capital. Thursday's $21 billion figure puts Payward 58% above that April price, effectively recovering the ground it lost.

Payward's underlying business is mixed. The company reported adjusted revenue of $508 million for the second quarter, up 17% year-over-year, with adjusted EBITDA of $23 million. Platform transaction volume fell 18% to $310 billion even as funded accounts jumped 42% to 6.6 million. Sethi confirmed in April that Payward filed a confidential draft S-1 with the SEC in November 2025, meaning an IPO is somewhere on the horizon even as the company keeps raising private capital from exchange operators.

Nasdaq's own stock traded at $93.68 Thursday morning, down 0.6% from Wednesday's close, giving the exchange a market capitalization of roughly $52 billion, per The Defiant. Wells Fargo served as Nasdaq's exclusive capital markets advisor on the deal.

The Open Question: What Does a Token Actually Get You?

Nasdaq and Payward insist NETs will preserve shareholder voting rights equivalent to owning the underlying Nasdaq-listed shares, according to CoinDesk reporting cited by Yahoo Finance. This distinction matters because it's not how every tokenized stock product on the market works today.

Robinhood is currently locked in a public dispute with AMC Entertainment over tokenized AMC shares Robinhood offered without AMC's involvement. AMC's position is that Robinhood created a synthetic market giving investors price exposure to AMC stock without any actual shareholder rights, voting power, or claim on the company. Robinhood defended itself on CNBC's "Squawk Box," arguing it and other platforms are free to build financial products that reference public stocks without the issuer's sign-off.

That fight demonstrates the exact question Nasdaq's deal raises. A "tokenized stock" isn't one legal thing right now. It can mean actual fractional ownership with voting rights, or it can mean a synthetic derivative that tracks a price and nothing else. Nasdaq says its version will be the former. That promise doesn't get tested until NETs actually launch, which isn't scheduled until the second quarter of 2027.

Separately, Reuters reported that Nasdaq received Securities and Exchange Commission approval allowing certain stocks to be traded and settled in tokenized form, a regulatory green light that predates Thursday's investment. Whether that approval covers the full NET framework Nasdaq and Payward are now building, or how the SEC will treat shareholder-rights claims once the product exists, remains unresolved. Payward's confidential S-1, filed with the SEC in November 2025, is also still sitting in draft form with no public filing date announced.