BNY, one of the world’s largest banks that hold assets for others, is in talks with Payward, the company behind crypto exchange Kraken, about a possible partnership. The two sides are exploring several areas, including digital assets, safekeeping, trading, payments and financial market systems. Payward offers many of these services through Payward Services, which works with banks, exchanges and asset managers.
The talks are still at an early stage, and there is no certainty that the two companies will reach an agreement. If a deal does happen, it could give Payward a stronger link to the traditional financial world. BNY, formerly called Bank of New York Mellon, already works with big institutional clients and offers services like safekeeping, transaction processing, asset management and wealth management.
LATEST: 🏦 BNY is in talks with Kraken parent Payward on a broad partnership spanning digital assets and market infrastructure, per CoinDesk. https://t.co/JgPgP3dsqD
— CoinMarketCap (@CoinMarketCap) October 3, 2026
BNY has also been working on its own digital-asset infrastructure. The bank is developing tokenized deposits that could allow institutions to settle transactions on blockchain networks almost in real time.
Payward has been moving in a similar direction. Last month, Nasdaq Ventures agreed to invest $100 million in the company at a valuation of $21 billion. The two companies are also working together on Nasdaq Equity Tokens, which are expected to launch in the second quarter of 2027.
The Nasdaq partnership is aimed at building the infrastructure needed to bring tokenized shares into the market. Payward will also use Nasdaq’s market-surveillance technology across its crypto, equities, tokenized-equities, futures and options businesses.
Payward has been expanding beyond its main Kraken exchange as it tries to build a wider financial-services business. Its operations now cover areas such as crypto trading, derivatives, payments, custody, staking and tokenized stocks.
The company has also made several acquisitions. It agreed to buy crypto derivatives firm Bitnomial for as much as $550 million and stablecoin payments company Reap for $600 million. In 2025, it bought retail futures platform NinjaTrader for about $1.5 billion. A partnership with BNY would add another major traditional financial institution to Payward’s growing list of relationships.
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