BNY Reportedly in Talks With Kraken Parent Payward on Broad Infrastructure Deal

Custody banking giant BNY is reportedly negotiating a wide-ranging partnership with Payward, the Wyoming-based parent of crypto exchange Kraken. Two people familiar with the matter said the deal could cover crypto products, custody, wealth management, trading, payments and market infrastructure, delivered through Payward Services, its platform for banks, exchanges and asset managers. Part of it may resemble the infrastructure side of Payward’s recent agreement with Nasdaq. Talks are ongoing, nothing is guaranteed, and both companies declined to comment.

What BNY Brings to the Table

BNY, formerly Bank of New York Mellon, provides custody, asset servicing, clearing and wealth management to institutional clients. It has also been building tokenized deposits meant to support near-real-time onchain settlement between institutions.

Nasdaq Investment and Tokenized Equities Plans

Last month Nasdaq Ventures agreed to invest $100 million in Payward at a $21 billion valuation. The two will keep developing Nasdaq Equity Tokens, with a planned launch in the second quarter of 2027, linking Nasdaq’s regulated markets with Payward’s xStocks ecosystem while protecting shareholder rights. Payward will also adopt Nasdaq’s market-surveillance technology across its venues.

Payward’s Acquisitions and IPO Timeline

Payward agreed in April to buy derivatives firm Bitnomial for up to $550 million, then struck a $600 million deal for stablecoin-payments company Reap, after buying NinjaTrader for about $1.5 billion in 2025. Its IPO has been pushed to the second quarter of 2027 at the earliest.