Payward spends $2 billion on NinjaTrader and Bitnomial to build financial infrastructure

Kraken parent Payward is spending billions of dollars to build itself into a broader financial infrastructure provider rather than remain solely a crypto exchange. The strategy, detailed by co-CEO Arjun Sethi, spans futures brokerage, banking, asset management and business-to-business services running on what the company calls “one ledger.”

• Payward paid $1.5 billion for NinjaTrader and $550 million for Bitnomial to build futures and derivatives capacity
• Kraken has about 6.6 million funded accounts holding between $40 billion and $50 billion in assets across more than 190 countries and territories
• Payward is profitable and in no rush to pursue an IPO

• $1.5B Payward’s price for NinjaTrader, its largest single acquisition to date
• $550M Payward’s price for Bitnomial to add a derivatives exchange and clearinghouse
• $508M Payward’s adjusted revenue in Q2 2026, up 17% from a year earlier
• $100M Nasdaq’s new investment in Payward announced this month

Kraken spent most of its 15-year history building a single crypto exchange. Over the past two years, according to reporting by CoinDesk, its Wyoming-based parent Payward has instead been assembling a much larger platform through billion-dollar acquisitions, new banking licenses in the United States and Europe, and a push into tokenized stocks.

Payward pays $1.5 billion for NinjaTrader, $550 million for Bitnomial

Payward’s acquisition spree has concentrated on capabilities Sethi says would take too long to build internally. The company paid $1.5 billion for NinjaTrader, giving it a U.S. futures brokerage along with its technology and regulatory permissions.

It followed that deal with a $550 million purchase of Bitnomial, adding a regulated derivatives exchange, clearinghouse and futures brokerage. Sethi told CoinDesk that Payward is also “about to buy a bank in Europe,” without naming the target. Bloomberg reported in July, according to Bloomberg Law, that Payward was planning to buy a Lithuanian bank to expand its presence on the continent.

Sethi described the underlying philosophy directly.

“It’s one platform, one balance sheet, one regulatory stack.”

Arjun Sethi, co-CEO, Payward

Payward does not run a standing acquisition list or solicit banker pitches, Sethi said. Instead it applies a quantitative framework to decide whether a target closes an infrastructure gap that customers actually want filled.

Nasdaq invests $100 million as tokenized equities push accelerates

Not every piece of the system can be bought, and Payward has turned to partnerships with the incumbents blockchain technology was once expected to bypass. Nasdaq agreed this month to invest $100 million in Payward while expanding joint work on Nasdaq Equity Tokens and market surveillance technology, with the two companies targeting a launch in the second quarter of 2027.

The London Stock Exchange has separately partnered with Payward to explore tokenized public equities, planning to list xStocks on its forthcoming LSE 24 venue in 2027, subject to regulatory approval. Sethi framed the arrangements as complementary rather than competitive with established exchanges.

“Trust is their currency,” he said, arguing that decades of listing and regulatory infrastructure built by exchanges like Nasdaq and the LSE cannot simply be replicated overnight.

IPO filed confidentially, but Sethi says no rush before Q2 2027

Payward reported $508 million in adjusted revenue for the second quarter of 2026, up 17% from the same period a year earlier. Sethi said the company is profitable, funds acquisitions from its own balance sheet, and does not need outside capital to operate.

Payward confidentially filed for an initial public offering in November 2025, but CoinDesk has separately reported it is not expected to list before the second quarter of 2027 at the earliest. Sethi declined to discuss the timeline beyond what has already been made public, saying a listing will happen “when it is right for the business, shareholders and regulators.”

Recent capital raises have brought in strategic partners rather than pure financing, including Citadel Securities alongside Nasdaq. Payward Services, its business-to-business infrastructure division, already counts at least 25 companies building on its stack, including Hyperliquid, with launches expected this year.

The BlockWest read. The real bet here is on distribution, not trading volume. By packaging custody, compliance, liquidity and settlement into APIs for banks, fintechs and brokerages, Payward is positioning itself as plumbing that other balance sheets will depend on, whether or not those customers ever open a Kraken account. That is a harder business to value on an S-1 than an exchange, and it will shape how analysts price any eventual listing.

Payward’s next concrete markers are external: the Nasdaq Equity Tokens launch targeted for the second quarter of 2027, the LSE 24 tokenized-stock listing planned for 2027, and whatever bank Payward confirms buying in Europe. Until Sethi names that target or the company updates its IPO timetable beyond the second quarter of 2027 at the earliest, the scale of Payward’s European banking ambitions remains unconfirmed.

BlockWest is a news publication. Nothing here is investment advice. Read our disclaimer and editorial policy.