Nasdaq's venture arm is investing $100 million in Payward, the parent of crypto exchange Kraken, in a deal that values the company at $21 billion and expands a tokenization partnership the two struck in March.

The capital deepens a plan to build an equities transformation gateway powered by Kraken's xStocks, letting tokenized shares move between Nasdaq's regulated, permissioned markets and permissionless public blockchains in eligible jurisdictions. Under the arrangement, Kraken serves as the primary settlement layer for Nasdaq's planned equity tokens and as the distribution partner outside the US, while Payward Services handles KYC and AML onboarding. Nasdaq expects the equity-token design to go live in the first half of 2027, pending regulatory sign-off.

xStocks has already cleared over $40 billion in volume since June 2025 across more than 200,000 holders, and the London Stock Exchange plans to tokenize 100 London-listed companies on the same rails.

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