Payward, the parent company of crypto exchange Kraken, is reportedly in discussions with BNY about a broad digital-asset partnership that could span custody, trading, payments, wealth management and financial infrastructure. The talks were first reported by CoinDesk and later covered by Crypto.news and PANews, citing two people familiar with the matter. Neither company has confirmed an agreement, and both declined to comment.
The potential arrangement would be delivered through Payward Services, the Wyoming-based B2B platform Payward launched on March 11, 2026. That platform offers banks, brokerages and payment providers access to trading, custody, stablecoin payments and funding through a single integration, allowing institutions to use Kraken's underlying infrastructure while keeping their own customer relationships.
The reported discussions fit Payward’s broader push into institutional market infrastructure. On September 10, 2026, Nasdaq announced that its venture arm had agreed to invest $100 million in Payward at a reported $21 billion valuation. The companies also expanded work on tokenized equities, with a launch expected in the second quarter of 2027, and Payward agreed to adopt Nasdaq’s market-surveillance technology across its trading venues.
Payward has also been expanding through acquisitions: it closed its Bitnomial US derivatives acquisition on May 1, 2026, bringing CFTC-regulated derivatives infrastructure, and completed the $600 million Reap stablecoin payments acquisition on July 1, 2026. BNY has its own digital-asset custody platform and announced a deposit-tokenization program on January 9, 2026, starting with collateral and margin workflows on a private, permissioned blockchain.
A tie-up between a crypto-native group and one of the largest custody banks would matter beyond the two firms. For banks, brokers and asset managers weighing digital-asset exposure, it could create a route through a single B2B provider rather than a patchwork of vendors. However, important operational questions remain, including legal custody responsibilities, withdrawal authorization, and which provider handles delayed or failed transactions. Any final deal would need to clarify eligible clients, services and accountability.
