Crypto26 September, 20262 min read
Payward Bets Billions On One Ledger To Unify Kraken Trading, Banking, And Asset Management
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One Ledger unifies trading, banking, asset management, and institutional services on shared infrastructure. Payward acquired NinjaTrader for $1.5 billion and Bitnomial for $550 million; bank deal near final.
5 outlets told this the same way.
One Ledger, Many Rails
Payward, the Wyoming-based parent of Kraken, said it is unifying trading, banking, asset management, and institutional services on common infrastructure rails under its “One Ledger” strategy. Arjun Sethi told CoinDesk, “We’re not a holding company,” and he added, “It’s one platform, one balance sheet, one regulatory stack.” Payward said its “one ledger” is designed to let money and assets move between products without the patchwork of intermediaries that sits behind most of traditional finance.
Payward said it is building that vision through four pillars, including trading through Kraken, banking, asset management, and Payward Services, its business-to-business infrastructure division. Sethi said Kraken has about 6.6 million funded accounts holding between $40 billion and $50 billion of assets across more than 190 countries and territories, and Payward is adding services around those accounts.
Billions in Deals
Payward said it is pursuing large-scale M&A to expand its reach into futures and derivatives, pushed into tokenized stocks, and pursued additional banking capabilities in the U.S. and Europe. Sethi said Payward paid $1.5 billion for the acquisition of NinjaTrader to build a U.S. futures brokerage, including its technology and regulatory permissions. Payward said it followed that with a $550 million deal for Bitnomial, adding regulated derivatives infrastructure including an exchange, clearinghouse and futures brokerage.
Sethi said Payward is “about to buy a bank in Europe,” without disclosing who the target was, while Bloomberg reported in July that Payward was planning to buy a Lithuanian bank. Payward said it uses a quantitative framework to determine whether a target fills an infrastructure gap and provides capabilities customers want, rather than broadly soliciting pitches from bankers.
Partnerships and Tokenized Markets
Payward said it is expanding cooperation with traditional finance through Nasdaq’s $100 million investment and through work on Nasdaq Equity Tokens and market surveillance technology. CoinDesk said Payward and Nasdaq expect to launch the tokens in the second quarter of 2027, with Payward providing distribution, trading, and post-trade infrastructure. The London Stock Exchange Group said it partnered with Payward to explore tokenized public equities under the xStocks brand, and it planned to list xStocks on its forthcoming LSE 24 venue in 2027 subject to regulatory approval.
Sethi said Payward Services provides custody, liquidity, compliance, risk management, settlement, and clearing capabilities to banks, fintech firms, brokers, and crypto platforms through common APIs. Architect Partners said Payward is helping define the next evolution beyond the “Everything Exchange” to an “Everything Financial Infrastructure” model, and it said Payward’s approach can function even when end customers never interact directly with Kraken.