Payward completes acquisition of Bitnomial, giving Kraken a regulated pathway to launch crypto derivatives within the US
The deal provides Payward management of a set of Commodity Futures Buying and selling Fee licenses, together with futures brokers, designated contract markets, and derivatives clearing organizations, permitting it to function buying and selling, clearing and brokerage companies below a single framework, in accordance with an organization assertion launched Friday.
Arjun Sethi, co-CEO of Payward and Kraken, mentioned the rollout will begin with spot margin buying and selling on Kraken, adopted by perpetual contracts and choices, including, “The buildup is what’s going to allow the subsequent set of merchandise.”
Chicago-based Bitnomial spent greater than a decade securing the three CFTC approvals wanted to function a full derivatives enterprise, a mix no different crypto-native US firm holds on the identical time, in accordance with Payward’s preliminary disclosure in April.
With the transaction accomplished, Bitnomial will function inside Payward whereas retaining its regulatory construction and third-party companies intact, with plans to develop the trade’s workforce as improvement continues, the corporate mentioned.
In keeping with Payward, the mixing will join Bitnomial’s infrastructure with Kraken, NinjaTrader and its B2B platform, permitting banks, brokerages and fee firms to entry regulated US crypto derivatives via a single API.
When the acquisition was first introduced, Payward mentioned the deal may very well be price as much as $550 million in money and inventory and will worth the corporate at $20 billion, however last phrases weren’t disclosed on the time of closing.
Payward had income of $2.2 billion in 2025, processed roughly $2 trillion in transaction quantity, and had greater than $48 billion in buyer belongings at year-end, in accordance with firm knowledge launched in April.
Outdoors the US, Payward mentioned it already operates a regulated derivatives enterprise within the UK following its acquisition in 2019 and is rising its worldwide presence earlier than introducing EU-regulated merchandise in 2025 and getting into the US market with a totally licensed construction.
The acquisition follows a separate $200 million funding from Deutsche Börse Group earlier this month, and Payward acknowledged that it confidentially filed a draft S-1 with the U.S. Securities and Trade Fee in November because it continues to think about an preliminary public providing.
