Nasdaq invests $100 million in Payward to develop tokenized equities infrastructure
Nasdaq's venture capital arm has agreed to a $100 million investment in Payward, the parent company of crypto exchange Kraken. The funding aims to build out infrastructure for Nasdaq Equity Tokens (NETs), blockchain-based representations of publicly traded stocks. This partnership expands an existing collaboration between the two firms and is expected to lead to the launch of NETs by Q2 2027. Kraken's platform will act as a distribution channel for these tokenized equities, which will carry voting rights equivalent to traditional shares on Nasdaq’s exchange. The investment values Payward at $21 billion. Nasdaq emphasized that this collaboration is being led by its Digital Liquidity Networks division and aims to develop global trading capabilities for tokenized assets. Payward co-CEO Arjun Sethi highlighted the potential of blockchain-based settlement in addressing inefficiencies in traditional stock clearing systems, which process over $2 trillion daily in U.S. trades. Nasdaq also announced that Payward will integrate its market surveillance tools across multiple asset classes as part of this expanded partnership.
Topics: blockchain crypto exchange investment Nasdaq Equity Tokens (NETs) tokenized stocks