Nasdaq agrees $100 million Payward investment to connect stock markets with crypto infrastructure

Nasdaq has agreed to invest $100 million in Payward, Kraken’s parent company, as the pair develop infrastructure for tokenised shares and settlement across blockchain networks. The agreement, announced on 10 September, expands a partnership established in March.

The investment is being made through Nasdaq Ventures. Fortune also reported the $100 million agreement.

What are the companies building?

The plan connects Nasdaq Equity Tokens, or NETs, with Payward’s xStocks ecosystem. Nasdaq expects to launch NETs in the second quarter of 2027. Delivery remains a company target.

Nasdaq contributes regulated market infrastructure and surveillance systems. Payward brings Kraken’s trading venue and the xStocks technology used to distribute tokenised equities.

Tokenisation represents an asset or a claim on it as a token that can move on a blockchain. For shares, the practical questions include what legal rights the token carries, how ownership changes are recorded and how dividends or voting rights reach the holder.

How would the gateway work?

Payward’s March announcement describes an equities transformation gateway connecting permissioned markets with permissionless blockchain networks.

A permissioned market admits participants under specified rules. A permissionless network lets users interact with the underlying blockchain more openly. Connecting them requires the share’s legal and operational conditions to survive the move between environments.

Nasdaq’s original token-design announcement puts listed companies at the centre of ownership rights, transparency and governance. That issuer relationship is part of the design: a token’s technical portability and the shareholder rights attached to it have to work together.

Surveillance is part of the deal

Payward will also adopt Nasdaq’s surveillance technology across its trading venues. That adds a concrete market-monitoring component alongside the tokenisation work.

Completing the trade on-chain

The next phase covers distribution, trading and settlement, including interoperability between NETs and xStocks. Settlement is the completion of a trade through the transfer of assets and payment. Moving that process on-chain introduces a shared transaction record, while eligibility, custody and ownership rules still determine how a particular product operates.

The investment aligns the companies financially with the infrastructure they are developing. The practical test arrives when an eligible investor can move a token between the intended environments with its ownership rights and settlement process intact.