Nasdaq invests $100 million in Kraken parent Payward at $21 billion valuation: Report

Nasdaq is putting $100 million into Payward, Kraken’s parent company, in an investment that values the crypto firm at $21 billion, Bloomberg reported Thursday, citing people familiar with the matter.

The deal, made through Nasdaq’s venture arm, builds on a partnership announced in March as Nasdaq expands its efforts to develop infrastructure for tokenized equities.

As part of that partnership, Kraken will offer Nasdaq’s tokenized stocks on its platform, allowing customers to hold digital versions of Nasdaq-listed shares while retaining the same voting rights as investors who own conventional equities traded on Nasdaq.

The investment adds to Nasdaq’s work on a framework that would give public companies more control over their shares when they are represented on blockchains. Nasdaq has also been working with Kraken on a gateway designed to let tokenized equities move between regulated financial markets and on-chain venues.

The effort is part of an ongoing push by major US market operators to bring blockchain technology into the infrastructure underlying traditional finance. The New York Stock Exchange is developing a blockchain-based venue that would support 24-hour trading of tokenized stocks and exchange-traded funds.

Nasdaq plans to launch its own token in the second quarter of next year, according to the report. The exchange operator last September asked the US Securities and Exchange Commission to amend rules that would permit stocks to be tokenized and traded on regulated venues such as Nasdaq.