In Q2 2027, both parties will cooperate to launch equity tokens.

Written by: Ma He, Foresight News

Nasdaq is intensifying its efforts on a track that is not yet fully laid.

On September 10, Nasdaq announced through its strategic investment arm Nasdaq Ventures that it had agreed to invest $100 million in Kraken's parent company, Payward. Both parties confirmed the continued advancement of Nasdaq Equity Tokens (NETs) operations and commercial infrastructure, planning to launch in the second quarter of 2027. Payward will integrate Nasdaq’s market surveillance technology into its trading venue, covering cryptocurrencies, stocks, tokenized stocks, futures, and options.

On the same day, Bloomberg cited informed sources stating that this round corresponds to a valuation of approximately $21 billion for Payward.

xStocks total transaction volume $25 billion

The collaboration between Nasdaq and Payward began with a product statement in the first half of 2026. The two parties announced the joint development of an "equity conversion gateway": utilizing Payward's xStocks framework to connect regulated licensed markets with unlicensed on-chain networks in eligible jurisdictions. Payward has stated its positioning very specifically — initially serving as the main settlement layer for NETs in eligible areas, with Payward Services responsible for KYC/AML. Nasdaq is responsible for the issuer-led design of equity tokens: using digital forms to represent shares in listed companies while striving to preserve the regulatory framework, governance rights, and market protections of traditional securities.

At that time, both parties indicated that the go-live date was anticipated to be “operational from Q1 2027” for NETs and related DLT services, but the September statement pushed the timeline back by a quarter.

Payward's RWA product is xStocks, and according to the latest data from Dune, its total transaction volume has exceeded $25 billion, with over $4 billion in on-chain settlements and more than 85,000 holders.

In September of this year, Payward announced with the London Stock Exchange that it would convert the 100 largest companies by market capitalization on the LSE into 1:1 backed xStocks.

In December 2025, Deutsche Börse Group announced a partnership with Kraken/Payward, similarly focusing on regulated crypto, tokenized markets, and derivatives. On April 14, 2026, Deutsche Börse further announced plans to invest $200 million by purchasing Payward shares in the secondary market, holding approximately 1.5% after full dilution, with the transaction pending regulatory approval.

The September 10 statement positioned the collaboration under Nasdaq's newly established Digital Liquidity Networks (DLN) in August. The mission of this department is “around-the-clock market infrastructure.”

Payward's co-CEO Arjun Sethi addressed the pain points of traditional clearing and settlement systems in the statement: U.S. stock clearing handles over $2 trillion daily, leaving only about 2% after netting. Clearinghouses still need to prepare between $10 billion to $20 billion in collateral for remaining positions, waiting another day to complete settlements; in 2024, the cycle will shrink from T+2 to T+1, releasing about $3 billion at once. The next phase is to place NETs into a “24/7 trading network, while fully preserving the governance rights and regulatory protections of traditional securities.”

IPO postponed to as early as next Q2

Kraken has been operating publicly since 2013, with Payward as its parent company.

In November 2025, Payward announced completing a total financing of $800 million, divided into two transactions. The first was led by institutional investors, including Jane Street, DRW Venture Capital, HSG, Tribe Capital, and the Sethi family office; shortly after, a $200 million strategic investment from Citadel Securities was finalized, with a valuation set at $20 billion. The stated use of funds was quite direct: to move traditional financial products onto the chain, facilitate trading, payments, and tokenized assets, and expand into Latin America, Asia-Pacific, and the Middle East and Africa.

However, constrained by the bear market in crypto, its IPO process has been continually postponed.

In March 2026, reports from Reuters and others stated that Payward had paused its IPO due to market conditions. In September of this year, CoinDesk cited two knowledgeable sources stating that Payward's listing timing has been pushed to at least the second quarter of 2027.

Currently, the latest data from Polymarket shows that the market bets only a 4% chance of Kraken going public this year.

Positioning in U.S. stock tokenization

For Nasdaq, investing $100 million buys three things that have already been validated: the xStocks distribution and settlement pipeline that has already generated volume; a design for a gateway that can transition NETs from a licensed market to a restricted on-chain environment; and embedding its surveillance standards into a platform that is building multi-asset capabilities. DLN's goal of “round-the-clock liquidity” will remain just a departmental strategy unless it connects to Payward's retail entry and on-chain settlement layer, providing an opportunity to become a product that can launch in Q2 2027.

Traditional exchanges in 2026 are already no longer satisfied with pilot projects — ICE is negotiating a joint venture entry with OKX, the London Stock Exchange is discussing the tokenization of its stocks, and Deutsche Börse has already joined the list of shareholders. Nasdaq's move appears more as a positioning in the same pipeline competition, rather than a symbolic endorsement of the crypto industry.

xStocks have clear restrictions for U.S. users, and tokenized stocks are not automatically equivalent to a share in a U.S. stock account.

In recent years, Kraken has clearly been transitioning from a spot crypto exchange to a multi-asset platform, with the next question being not how much more can it raise, but how many issuers are willing to issue tokens under the standard of “rights retained” when NETs go live in Q2 2027, and in which jurisdictions these tokens can actually be bought, transferred, and voted.