Nasdaq Archives - BlockWest

September 24 2026

HIFI raises $37 million to build rails for tokenized capital markets

Ashton Addison Institutional & TradFi Crypto, RWA & Tokenization BlackRock, Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan, Nasdaq, Stablecoins, Tokenization

HIFI, the New York stablecoin payments and tokenization company, has raised a $37 million Series A led by Left Lane Capital, The Block reported on Thursday. It is the company’s first priced round, according to Cointelegraph. Other participants and the valuation were not disclosed.

The money goes toward scaling HIFI’s tokenized capital markets infrastructure and widening its product suite. The more interesting part of the announcement is not the round size. It is where HIFI already sits: inside the plumbing that large institutions are using to move securities and dollars on-chain.

What HIFI actually sells

HIFI describes its product as a single API that combines money movement, compliance and settlement across bank rails and digital assets. In practice that means converting dollars to stablecoins and back, paying out over US banking rails and to cards, and settling tokenized repo and Treasury transactions.

The company says it processes more than $7 billion in annualized volume across 87 countries. Chief executive Zach Walsh put the figure at “approximately $7 billion in annualized volume directly through its platform.” That is a modest number next to legacy payment networks, but it is real flow rather than a pilot, and it is the base Left Lane is underwriting.

A seat at the DTCC table

The credential that matters most is HIFI’s role in the Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation’s first production trades using DTC-tokenized assets. In its July 15 announcement, DTCC said trades covering collateral pledges, securities lending, Treasury repo delivery-versus-payment, equity settlement and CCP margin workflows had been processed on its private Besu network and on Canton. HIFI is named among more than 30 participants, alongside BlackRock, Goldman Sachs, J.P. Morgan, Nasdaq, Citadel Securities, Circle and Vanguard.

DTCC plans to officially launch its Tokenization Service in October. When that happens, the firms that already ran production trades have a head start on onboarding clients who want tokenized collateral and 24/7 settlement without building the stack themselves. That is the market HIFI is raising into.

The Visa leg

In September, HIFI partnered with Visa to extend its stablecoin settlement platform to money transfers and card payments, supporting payouts to more than 4 billion Visa cards, according to The Block. It fits a broader Visa push: the network launched USDC settlement in the US in December 2025 at a $3.5 billion annualized run rate across its stablecoin pilots, and The Block reports that figure has since reached $20 billion.

For HIFI, the card leg is the consumer-facing end of the same pipe. A business can take in dollars, hold or move them as stablecoins, and push them out to a bank account or a card anywhere Visa reaches.

Why the timing works

The backdrop is supply. Dollar-pegged stablecoins now exceed $295 billion, with USDT at about $183.4 billion and USDC near $76 billion, per The Block’s data. Cross-border stablecoin flows reached $220.3 billion in the 12 months to June 2026, up 77.5% year on year, according to figures cited by Cointelegraph.

Stablecoins have become the settlement asset. Tokenized Treasuries and equities are becoming the collateral. The companies that sit between the two, handling compliance, conversion and final settlement, are the ones institutions will pay. HIFI is one of a small group of vendors trying to be that layer, and it is not alone: BVNK also powers stablecoin payouts for Visa Direct, for example.

The BlockWest read. We think the DTCC credential is worth more than the $37 million. Series A money in stablecoin payments is no longer scarce, but a place in DTCC’s first production trades is. The test comes in October: if the Tokenization Service goes live and HIFI turns that access into repo and collateral clients, this round will look cheap. If volume stays mostly in payouts, it is a payments company with a tokenization story.

What to watch

DTCC’s October launch of its Tokenization Service and which participants move from test trades to client flow.
Whether HIFI discloses the rest of its investor syndicate or a valuation.
Growth in the $7 billion annualized volume figure, and how much of it comes from tokenized securities rather than payouts.

September 11 2026

Nasdaq Proposes $100 Million Investment in Payward to Strengthen Kraken Partnership

BlockWest News Team Digital Assets, Institutional & TradFi Crypto, RWA & Tokenization cryptocurrency infrastructure, Kraken, market surveillance, Nasdaq, tokenized equities

Nasdaq’s proposed $100 million investment in Payward deepens the exchange’s stakes in cryptocurrency infrastructure and tokenized equities, while expanding Kraken’s role as a critical intermediary for regulated digital assets. The dual commitments signal confidence in the 2027 launch of Nasdaq Equity Tokens, even as regulatory and technical hurdles remain unresolved.

Nasdaq Ventures will invest $100 million in Payward, Kraken’s parent company, under a proposed agreement with no disclosed closing date or valuation terms.
Payward will deploy Nasdaq market-surveillance technology across crypto, equities, tokenized equities, futures and options trading venues.
Nasdaq Equity Tokens are now expected to launch in the second quarter of 2027, with Payward embedded as a gateway, settlement participant and surveillance customer.

$100M Nasdaq Ventures investment in Payward, deepening prior tokenized-equity partnership
Q2 2027 Expected launch window for Nasdaq Equity Tokens with Payward integration

Nasdaq has committed to a $100 million investment in Payward, the parent holding of crypto exchange Kraken, while the two companies expand their existing partnership on tokenized equities and market surveillance. The investment, announced September 10, pairs new capital with a technology-sharing agreement under which Payward will implement Nasdaq’s market-surveillance tools across multiple asset classes and trading venues. The deal represents a significant deepening of ties that began in March 2024 when the companies first outlined plans to connect Nasdaq’s proposed issuer-sponsored tokens with Payward’s xStocks tokenized-equity ecosystem.

The partnership reflects broader industry trends toward convergence between traditional and digital asset markets. As tokenized equities gain traction among institutional investors seeking efficiency and programmability, established exchanges are positioning themselves to serve this emerging segment. Nasdaq’s decision to anchor its tokenized-equity strategy to Kraken underscores the crypto exchange’s evolution from a speculative trading venue toward an infrastructure provider for regulated financial products.

Nasdaq Surveillance System to Span Crypto and Traditional Markets

Under the expanded partnership, Payward will deploy Nasdaq’s surveillance infrastructure across a diverse portfolio of trading venues encompassing cryptocurrency, equities, tokenized equities, futures and options. This extension moves the relationship beyond settlement and distribution frameworks for planned Nasdaq Equity Tokens into the operational layer of trade monitoring and compliance. The announcement does not specify which Payward venues will implement the tools first or provide a completion timeline for full deployment.

The surveillance component addresses a critical gap in the crypto industry, where trading volumes have expanded faster than monitoring capabilities. Nasdaq’s market-surveillance systems, refined over decades of operating traditional equity markets, represent among the most sophisticated detection frameworks for market abuse, spoofing and manipulation. Integrating these tools into crypto trading venues signals recognition that institutional participation and regulatory acceptance require parity in compliance rigor with legacy markets.

Regulatory bodies have repeatedly flagged inadequate surveillance as a barrier to approving spot crypto ETFs and other regulated products. By embedding Nasdaq-grade monitoring across multiple asset classes, Payward may strengthen the compliance posture of its parent company Kraken and demonstrate to regulators that crypto platforms can meet institutional standards for market integrity.

Investment Terms Remain Opaque Pending Closing

The announcement describes an agreement to invest rather than a completed transaction, and discloses no closing date, Payward valuation, ownership stake or governance rights for Nasdaq. This lack of specificity leaves open the extent of influence Nasdaq may eventually hold over Payward’s operations and strategic direction. The proposal requires Payward and Nasdaq to execute a definitive agreement before capital changes hands.

Such conditional announcements are common in venture capital and strategic investment scenarios, allowing both parties to negotiate final terms while publicly signaling commitment to a partnership. However, the absence of clear milestones or conditions precedent creates uncertainty around timing and ultimate deal structure. Investors and market observers will likely scrutinize whether regulatory approval or other factors might delay or reshape the transaction.

Nasdaq Equity Tokens Scheduled for Q2 2027 Debut

The two companies now expect Nasdaq Equity Tokens to launch in the second quarter of 2027, according to the September 10 announcement. Nasdaq has described NETs as issuer-sponsored tokens designed to preserve issuer control and the legal and regulatory rights of underlying shares, distinguishing them from third-party tokenized-stock products already trading on Kraken and other platforms.

The 2027 timeline reflects both the technical complexity and regulatory uncertainty surrounding issuer-sponsored tokenized equities. Unlike existing tokenized-equity products, which wrap traditional shares in blockchain-native wrappers, Nasdaq’s approach aims to create native tokens that retain full legal standing as equity securities. This requires coordinating with regulators, issuers and market infrastructure providers to establish settlement procedures, custody arrangements and corporate-action protocols adapted for onchain markets.

Payward’s role spans both transaction infrastructure and monitoring: the company will function as a gateway and settlement participant for NETs while serving as a customer for Nasdaq’s surveillance stack. The dual positioning makes Kraken’s parent an essential intermediary in Nasdaq’s vision for bringing institutional-grade tokenized equities to regulated onchain markets. The 2027 timeline gives both companies roughly two years to finalize operational systems, secure regulatory approvals and test integration between issuer-sponsored tokens and existing crypto trading infrastructure.

Success depends partly on regulatory clarity around tokenized equities, which remains evolving. The SEC, FINRA and other bodies have not yet issued comprehensive guidance on issuer-sponsored token frameworks, leaving room for interpretation and potential shifts in requirements as the 2027 launch approaches.

Nasdaq and Payward have not disclosed whether other trading platforms will gain access to Nasdaq’s surveillance tools or whether the integration timeline for NETs will shift as regulatory requirements become clearer. The operational bridge between issuer-sponsored tokens and onchain settlement remains untested at scale.

Nasdaq