Payward

Kraken is the crypto exchange of the group, with the Kraken app, Kraken Pro for active traders, Kraken Prime for institutions and the self-custody app Kraken Wallet. In 2025 Kraken bought the Chicago futures platform NinjaTrader for 1.5 billion dollars, and NinjaTrader still runs under its own name.

NinjaTrader came to Europe in January 2026 and offers exchange-listed futures to clients in the Netherlands and Germany through a MiFID investment firm of the group, as The Block reported. France and Italy are the next markets that NinjaTrader named for its European expansion. Breakout, the third trading brand, gives traders who pass an evaluation a funded account, and Kraken completed its purchase in September 2025.

xStocks are tokens that track a listed share or exchange-traded fund one to one, backed by the underlying shares that the issuer holds. The holder gets price exposure only, without voting rights in the company, and the tokens move between exchanges, self-custody wallets and onchain applications. Kraken launched xStocks with the Swiss issuer Backed in July 2025 and agreed to buy Backed in December of the same year.

The issuing company is Backed Assets (JE) Limited in Jersey, and the tokens are not offered to US persons or to investors in the United Kingdom. Tracker tokens of this kind work differently from real tokenized shares, which a German stock corporation can issue under the Electronic Securities Act. By September 2026 xStocks had passed 40 billion dollars in total volume and 200,000 holders, and OKX sells its own tokenized stocks built on xStocks.

CF Benchmarks in London is a benchmark administrator regulated by the UK Financial Conduct Authority, and it calculates reference rates for bitcoin, ether and other digital assets. CME Group settles its bitcoin futures against the CME CF Bitcoin Reference Rate, and several spot bitcoin ETFs in the United States value their holdings with its New York variant. CF Benchmarks came to the group in 2019 together with Crypto Facilities, a London derivatives venue that Kraken bought.

Krak is the money app of the group, launched in June 2025, with one account for salary, transfers, card payments and savings. In May 2026 Krak added virtual IBANs for Latvia, Greece, Croatia and Hungary, which start with DE and run on SEPA, together with a salary match of up to 1 percent. Payward Ireland Limited provides the e-money service behind Krak, and UAB Monavate, a company authorized by the Bank of Lithuania, issues the Krak Card. Krak is not a bank, so its balances fall under the safeguarding rules for e-money and not under a deposit guarantee scheme.

Payward bought Reap, a card-issuing and payments company from Hong Kong that works with stablecoin cards, for up to 600 million dollars in cash and stock. The deal closed on July 1, 2026, and in September Reap and Visa announced stablecoin card programs for more than 100 markets.

On October 14, 2026 Payward agreed to buy Saldo Finance Oy in Finland, the owner of Saldo Bank UAB, a digital bank licensed in Lithuania. Saldo Bank takes term deposits in Lithuania, Finland, Sweden and Germany, lends to consumers and small companies, and supplies lending infrastructure to fintechs in Finland and Germany. With the bank, Payward plans interest on deposits, loans, credit cards and banking-as-a-service with SEPA access for partners, and the purchase is expected to close in 2027 after regulatory approval.

Arjun Sethi, Co-CEO of Payward, described the plan in the announcement of the Saldo deal: "We are starting in the EU, and the ambition is global."

In December 2025 Kraken and Deutsche Börse Group agreed a partnership for trading, custody, settlement and collateral, which both companies announced on December 4. Kraken connects to the foreign exchange venue 360T, and derivatives listed on Eurex are planned for Kraken clients, subject to regulatory approval. Securities held at Clearstream are to reach Kraken clients in tokenized form, and xStocks join the 360X ecosystem of the exchange group. Deutsche Börse also bought a stake of about 1.5 percent in Payward for 200 million dollars.

In September 2026 Payward and the London Stock Exchange agreed to tokenize the 100 largest London-listed companies as xStocks, and the exchange plans to list the tokens on its 24-hour venue LSE 24, subject to approval. In the same month Payward extended its cooperation with Nasdaq on tokenized equities and markets that stay open around the clock.

Payward Services is the business-to-business platform that Payward built from 15 years of running Kraken. Banks, brokers, payment companies and fintechs connect to it once and offer their own clients crypto and tokenized stock trading, fiat and stablecoin payments, yield, lending and derivatives. Payward runs liquidity, custody, compliance, risk and settlement behind the partner brand.

The trading platform WOO X used Payward Services for its EU launch in September 2026. The partnership with Deutsche Börse Group adds white-label crypto trading and custody that banks and fintechs in Europe can offer under their own name.

Payward serves clients in the European Economic Area from Dublin. Payward Europe Solutions Limited, trading as Kraken, holds a MiCA license from the Central Bank of Ireland for custody, exchange, order execution, placement, transfers and portfolio management, and the ESMA register dates it June 25, 2025. Payward Global Solutions Limited holds a second MiCA license for running the trading platform, and both companies have their registered office at 70 Sir John Rogerson's Quay, Dublin D02 R296.

Payward Europe Digital Solutions (CY) Limited in Nicosia, formerly I.F. Greenfields Wealth Ltd, is an investment firm with license 342/17 from the Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission. This company offers derivatives and NinjaTrader futures to European clients under MiFID II. Kraken also bought the Dutch crypto broker Coin Meester (BCM), and the deal closed in September 2024.

In the United Kingdom, Payward Limited is registered with the Financial Conduct Authority as a crypto asset firm, and Payward Services Limited holds a UK e-money license. Crypto Facilities Ltd is an investment firm authorized by the same regulator, according to the license list of Kraken. In its letter on the second quarter of 2026, Payward linked the growth of its funded accounts in the EEA to the MiCA authorization.

Payward Ireland Limited is the Irish e-money institution of the group, authorized by the Central Bank of Ireland under reference C453020. Clients in the European Economic Area hold euro balances and send and receive payments with this company, so its name can appear on a bank statement after a transfer to or from Kraken or Krak. As an e-money institution it keeps client money separate from its own funds, but the balances are not covered by a deposit guarantee scheme.

Kraken belongs to Payward, Inc., the privately held parent company of Kraken, Krak, NinjaTrader and the other brands, and Arjun Sethi leads the group as Co-CEO. Deutsche Börse Group holds about 1.5 percent of Payward, and an 800 million dollar funding round in 2025 was led by Citadel, Jane Street, Oppenheimer and Tribe Capital. Payward issued its own shares at a valuation of 20 billion dollars when it bought Reap.

Payward shares are not listed, so investors cannot buy Payward stock on an exchange today. Payward filed a confidential draft registration statement with the US Securities and Exchange Commission in November 2025 and later paused the listing because of weak crypto markets, as Bitcoin Magazine reported. Unnamed sources quoted by Crowdfund Insider in September 2026 did not expect a listing before the second quarter of 2027.

A separate company sponsored by Kraken, KRAKacquisition Corp, raised 345 million dollars in its own listing in January 2026 and looks for a merger partner. Buying shares of this special purpose acquisition company does not give the buyer a stake in Payward.