Nasdaq Invests $100M in Kraken Parent Payward to Bring Stocks Onchain

The partnership combines Nasdaq’s regulated market infrastructure with Kraken’s tokenization and distribution technology.

$100M for blockchain market infrastructure

Nasdaq and Payward are developing an equities transformation gateway connecting regulated securities markets with blockchain networks.

The proposed flow is straightforward:

Nasdaq-listed equity → Transformation gateway → Tokenized equity → Blockchain networks

Kraken would provide distribution through infrastructure built around xStocks.

Tokenized shares with shareholder rights

Nasdaq’s approach differs from synthetic products that only track a stock’s price.

The planned tokenized securities are intended to preserve core characteristics of conventional shares:

✓ ownership rights

✓ voting rights

✓  shareholder engagement

✓ regulatory protections

✓ corporate actions

This would allow the blockchain representation and conventional security to represent the same underlying ownership interest rather than function as separate financial products.

Existing xStocks work differently. They are 1:1 backed by underlying equities, but holders generally receive economic exposure rather than direct ownership and conventional shareholder voting rights.

Kraken already has the distribution layer

Kraken has been building the infrastructure Nasdaq needs through xStocks.

The platform has recorded:

• $25B+ in combined transaction volume
• 100,000+ unique holders globally
• 100+ tokenized stocks and ETFs

The infrastructure stack could therefore look like:

Nasdaq/regulated market → Conventional equity → Tokenization gateway → Kraken/xStocks infrastructure → Blockchain networks

Nasdaq supplies the regulated market and securities infrastructure; Kraken provides tokenization technology, blockchain connectivity and distribution.

What changes technically

Putting equities onchain creates several infrastructure possibilities beyond simple token trading.

1. Settlement: securities and payments could move through blockchain-based rails.
2. Corporate actions: dividends, splits and other events could become more automated.
3. Interoperability: tokenized securities could move between compatible financial platforms and blockchain networks.
4. Programmability: equities could interact directly with smart-contract-based financial infrastructure.

Corporate actions are one potential target for automation. Nasdaq estimates that existing corporate-action processing generates more than $58 billion in structural industry costs.

The exchange is also extending conventional market availability. Nasdaq plans to introduce 23-hour weekday trading, further reducing the gap between traditional exchanges and continuously operating crypto markets.

Wall Street and onchain markets converge

The $100 million investment gives Nasdaq access to an existing blockchain distribution layer instead of requiring it to build the entire stack internally. Nasdaq contributes regulated securities infrastructure and established equity markets. Payward contributes Kraken, xStocks and blockchain connectivity.

The resulting model is simple:

regulated shares + shareholder rights + blockchain settlement and distribution.

If implemented at scale, tokenization stops being a wrapper around stock prices and becomes part of the market infrastructure itself.