NASDAQ INVESTS $100M IN KRAKEN PARENT PAYWARD AT $21B VALUATION

Summary from the TLDR Crypto newsletter

Nasdaq Ventures invested $100 million in Payward, Kraken's parent company, at a $21 billion valuation on September 10, expanding a partnership the two firms first announced in March. The deal includes the Equity Token (NET) framework, targeting a Q2 2027 launch, under which Kraken will distribute Nasdaq-tokenized stocks carrying voting rights equivalent to ordinary exchange-listed shares. The arrangement positions Nasdaq simultaneously as equity exchange operator, tokenization issuer, and strategic investor in a crypto venue, a structural alignment that prior tokenized equity products from Binance and FTX lacked, and that may resolve the regulatory friction those programs encountered.