Nasdaq Invests $100 Million in Kraken's Parent to Push Tokenized Stock Trading

Nasdaq is placing a significant bet on the future of tokenized securities, agreeing to invest 100 million dollars in Payward, the parent company of cryptocurrency exchange Kraken, as the two firms work to bring blockchain based stock trading to the mainstream.

The investment, made through Nasdaq's venture capital arm, values Payward at 21 billion dollars and expands a partnership the companies had already begun building around what they call Nasdaq Equity Tokens, or NETs. Those tokens are designed to represent shares of Nasdaq listed companies on a blockchain, giving holders exposure to the underlying stock without trading it through a traditional brokerage account.

Voting Rights and Market Surveillance

Under the expanded arrangement, Kraken's trading platform will act as a distribution channel for these tokenized shares, giving crypto native traders a path into Nasdaq listed equities without leaving the exchange they already use. Nasdaq has said the tokens will carry shareholder voting rights equivalent to those attached to conventional shares traded on its exchange, an effort to make the tokenized version function as closely as possible to real stock ownership rather than a synthetic derivative.

As part of the deal, Payward has also agreed to fold Nasdaq's market surveillance technology into its own operations, covering trading across crypto, equities, tokenized equities, futures, and options. That integration is meant to give regulators and the companies themselves a clearer view into trading activity across asset classes that have historically been overseen by different regulatory regimes.

A Bet on Blockchain Reshaping Stock Trading

Nasdaq and Payward are targeting a launch of NETs in the second quarter of 2027, giving both companies roughly a year and a half to build out the technology and navigate the regulatory questions that come with blending traditional securities markets and blockchain infrastructure. The move reflects a broader push across Wall Street to bring tokenization into mainstream finance, as exchanges and asset managers look for ways to make trading faster, cheaper, and accessible around the clock rather than confined to standard market hours.