Nasdaq invests $100 million in Payward for tokenized stocks

Nasdaq Ventures has invested $100 million in Payward, the parent company of the cryptocurrency exchange Kraken. The investment aims to develop infrastructure for the distribution and trading of tokenized equities.

The partnership focuses on the creation of Nasdaq Equity Tokens (NETs), which are blockchain-based representations of publicly traded securities. The companies anticipate that these products will be available to the market in the second quarter of 2027.

As part of the agreement, Payward will implement Nasdaq’s market-surveillance technology across its various trading venues, including crypto, tokenized equities, futures, and options. This integration seeks to bring traditional exchange-level oversight to digital asset trading platforms.