Nasdaq invests $100 million in Kraken parent, eyeing 2027 launch of 'tokenized' stock trading

Nasdaq's venture capital arm is investing $100 million in Kraken parent Payward, partnering with the crypto firm to launch tokenized equities in 2027 and build a market infrastructure and surveillance technology to support them. 

The deal expands on a previously announced partnership between Nasdaq and Payward to test Nasdaq Equity Tokens (NETs). In this new phase, the companies will develop an infrastructure to distribute and trade tokenized stocks, which is the issue of digital representations of publicly traded securities, other assets or form of value on a blockchain network, Nasdaq said Thursday morning.

The partners expect to launch their tokenized equities in the second quarter of 2027. Holders of tokenized assets don't have outright ownership of the assets themselves.

Payward will also adopt Nasdaq's market-surveillance technology across its trading venues, including crypto and tokenized equities, as the Kraken exchange looks beyond cryptocurrencies to move into stocks, derivatives and other traditional financial products in an attempt to turn its crypto exchange into a broader, multi-asset trading platform.

The investment brings the crypto company's valuation to $21 billion, according to Bloomberg, which first reported the story Thursday.