Payward is integrating trading, payments, asset management, and institutional services, as stated by co-CEO Arjun Sethi.
By Will Canny, AI Boost|Edited by Aoyon AshrafSep 26, 2026, 10:00 a.m. EDT6 min readMake preferred on ShareShare this articleCopy linkX (Twitter)LinkedInFacebookEmailMake preferred on Payward and Kraken co-CEO Arjun Sethi. (CoinDesk)SummaryShow- Payward is integrating trading, banking, asset management, and institutional services on a unified infrastructure.
- The parent company of Kraken is both building products in-house and acquiring necessary capabilities.
- Sethi indicated that Payward is currently profitable and is not in haste to pursue an IPO.
For most of its 15-year history, Kraken has focused on developing its cryptocurrency exchange. Recently, however, its parent company has shifted towards creating a more expansive financial ecosystem.
Based in Wyoming, Payward has invested billions in acquisitions to broaden its services, including futures, derivatives, tokenized stocks, and enhanced banking capabilities in both the U.S. and Europe.
This strategic direction aims to establish Payward as a comprehensive financial platform where trading, banking, asset management, and business services can seamlessly operate together.
"We’re not merely a holding company," Sethi emphasized. "It’s a singular platform with one balance sheet and one regulatory framework," he explained in an interview with CoinDesk.
Central to this strategy is Sethi's concept of "one ledger," which facilitates the movement of funds and assets across various products without the need for the multiple intermediaries that characterize traditional finance.
Payward is not the only player aiming to create a broader financial platform. Competitors like Coinbase are developing an "Everything Exchange" that incorporates crypto, stocks, derivatives, and prediction markets, while Binance is merging trading, payments, investing, and yield products into a single ecosystem.
However, according to Architect Partners, a digital-assets investment bank, Payward is pursuing a distinct approach. Rather than confining all its products to a single Kraken-branded platform, it is constructing infrastructure capable of supporting various brands and external financial firms.
"Payward seems to be opting for a different aggregation strategy: a regulated infrastructure stack that can facilitate financial products across multiple brands, customer segments, and partner channels," Architect Partners noted.
They added, "In our perspective, Payward is shaping the next evolution beyond the 'Everything Exchange': an 'Everything Financial Infrastructure' model."
In terms of exchange volume, Kraken is still smaller than its competitors. Data from CoinGecko indicates that Kraken averaged approximately $1.1 billion in daily spot trading over the first four months of 2026, while Binance held a 38.7% share of the top ten centralized exchanges' spot volume in the second quarter, and Coinbase accounted for 8.6% of the overall crypto trading volume in the first quarter.
One ledger, four businesses
Payward believes that much of the existing financial system is hindered by outdated technology and market practices. Securities take time to settle, markets close at night and on weekends, and banks, brokers, and custodians maintain disparate records that require reconciliation.
Each of these barriers adds intermediaries, delays, and costs, according to Sethi. He argues that blockchain technology provides a solution by allowing assets to serve as investments, collateral, and programmable instruments on a shared infrastructure.
Payward's vision is structured around four pillars: trading via Kraken, banking, asset management, and Payward Services, which focuses on B2B infrastructure.
Kraken boasts approximately 6.6 million funded accounts, holding between $40 billion and $50 billion in assets across more than 190 countries and territories, as stated by Sethi.
To realize its vision of a unified financial ecosystem, Payward is expanding its services for these accounts, introducing offerings like cards, lending, derivatives, tokenized equities, and products enabling customers to borrow against their assets or utilize them in decentralized finance applications. Kraken Financial, its special-purpose depository institution chartered in Wyoming, is also part of this infrastructure.
Build, buy, or partner
This strategy influences the company's acquisition choices.
While Payward develops some capabilities in-house, it also seeks out acquisitions for those that would be too time-consuming to replicate and partners with institutions that offer unique advantages.
For instance, Payward acquired NinjaTrader for $1.5 billion to establish a U.S. futures brokerage, gaining both technology and regulatory approvals that would have been difficult and expensive to obtain otherwise, according to Sethi. Following this, it made a $550 million acquisition of Bitnomial, which added regulated derivatives infrastructure including an exchange, clearinghouse, and futures brokerage.
Sethi also mentioned that the company is "about to buy a bank in Europe," although he did not reveal the identity of the target. Reports from Bloomberg in July indicated that Payward was eyeing a Lithuanian bank to enhance its European presence.
Payward's acquisitions (CoinDesk/Payward)Payward does not maintain a specific acquisition list or actively solicit pitches from investment bankers. Instead, Sethi explained that the company employs a quantitative framework to assess whether a target fills an infrastructure gap and meets customer needs.
However, not every aspect of the financial system can be acquired. Some of Payward's most impactful recent actions have involved collaborating with established institutions that blockchain technology was initially designed to replace.
For example, Nasdaq recently agreed to invest $100 million in Payward while enhancing its work on Nasdaq Equity Tokens and market surveillance technology. The two companies anticipate launching these tokens in the second quarter of 2027, with Payward handling distribution, trading, and post-trade infrastructure.
In a separate endeavor, the London Stock Exchange has partnered with Payward to explore tokenized public equities. Subject to regulatory approval, they plan to list xStocks, tokenized versions of publicly traded shares, on the upcoming LSE 24 venue in 2027.
These partnerships indicate Payward's recognition that blockchain infrastructure cannot entirely replace the extensive systems built by traditional exchanges over decades.
As Sethi noted, "Trust is their currency," suggesting that Payward can complement rather than substitute for the established exchanges' listing and regulatory frameworks.
To further its vision, Payward is not waiting for legislative changes to occur first.
Sethi views the stagnation of U.S. crypto legislation as a non-issue. The company has supported the Clarity Act and has dedicated years to educating lawmakers, but he believes that legislation formalizes industries rather than creating them.
“Bitcoin has existed for 17 years without a market-structure bill,” he remarked. “Rights precede laws, and legislation follows.”
Opening its infrastructure to other companies
Payward is also transforming the infrastructure initially designed for Kraken into a standalone business.
Payward Services offers banks, fintech firms, brokerages, and crypto platforms access to a unified set of APIs. According to Sethi, at least 25 companies are currently developing products using this infrastructure, with launches expected this year. Hyperliquid is one of its partners.
This division evolved from the infrastructure Payward had previously established for its internal needs, including custody, liquidity, compliance, risk management, payments, and settlement. It now packages those capabilities for external companies through a single integration.
This approach provides Payward with a distribution channel that does not rely on directly attracting customers to Kraken, as suggested by Architect Partners. Instead, banks, fintechs, brokers, and other firms can utilize Payward's infrastructure in their own branded products.
“Payward’s model can function even if the end customer never interacts with Kraken directly,” Architect Partners added.
This strategy offers Payward an additional revenue stream beyond the trading activities on Kraken while positioning the company against a growing number of crypto firms that provide infrastructure to banks and fintechs.
Bringing asset management on-chain
The firm is also applying a similar strategy to investment products.
Payward has long provided custody, staking, and yield products but is now formalizing this into an asset-management platform that can support additional managers, strategies, and asset classes.
Instead of pursuing conventional investment mandates, it aims to create the execution and distribution layer that allows customers to access structured products, tokenized equities, credit, and multi-asset strategies while retaining assets on Payward’s platform.
The initial emphasis will be on tokenized equities, followed by structured products that can be fractionated and distributed globally. Payward recently formed a partnership with Bitwise on an institutional investment product and expects to onboard more managers and strategies soon.
The resulting products will resemble traditional asset management externally but will be tokenized and managed on Payward’s infrastructure, thereby lowering costs and counterparty risks, according to Sethi.
No rush to go public
This expansion is occurring as Payward prepares for a potential public offering. However, Sethi emphasizes that the company is not depending on an IPO to fuel its growth.
Payward confidentially filed for an IPO in November 2025, though CoinDesk reported earlier this month that it does not expect to go public until at least the second quarter of 2027.
Sethi refrained from discussing the timeline beyond what is publicly known, stating that Payward remains profitable and its revenue continues to rise. The IPO will occur when it is beneficial for the business, shareholders, and regulators, he noted.
Payward also does not require external funding to sustain its operations and can finance investments from its own resources, according to Sethi.
Recent fundraising efforts have instead attracted strategic partners, including Citadel Securities and Nasdaq, whose expertise will help enhance the platform.
For the second quarter of 2026, Payward reported $508 million in adjusted revenue, representing a 17% year-over-year increase.
Ultimately, Payward aims to streamline the financial system through blockchain technology, providing individuals access to the same financial infrastructure utilized by sophisticated trading firms like Jump Trading and Jane Street.
“Fix money, fix the world,” Sethi concluded.
Read more: Kraken parent Payward delays IPO to second quarter of 2027 at earliest
KrakenPaywardExclusiveAI Disclaimer: Parts of this article were generated with the assistance from AI tools and reviewed by our editorial team to ensure accuracy and adherence to our standards. For more information, see CoinDesk's full AI Policy.Latest Crypto News- 1Binance deal gives Circle a boost in stablecoin race with Tether, analysts say2 hours ago
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