Nasdaq invests $100M in Kraken parent Payward at $21B valuation

The significance lies less in the ticket size than in the counterparty: a mainstream exchange operator putting capital behind a crypto-native venue to pursue round-the-clock tokenized equities, a product that blurs the line between traditional listings and crypto market structure. The parties most affected are incumbent exchanges and brokers whose trading hours and settlement cycles would be directly challenged if tokenized stock products gain traction. Whether Nasdaq's involvement is a one-off balance-sheet allocation or the start of deeper integration between regulated venues and crypto infrastructure is the open question to watch.