Kraken buys Hong Kong stablecoin firm Reap for $600 million in Asia push
Kraken’s $600 million acquisition folds the Hong Kong stablecoin business payments specialist into your stack, while Payward is issuing $20 billion worth of stock to support the currency’s IPO-era M&A.
Summary
- Kraken parent Payward will buy Hong Kong-based Reap Technologies for $600 million in cash and stock.
- The deal values Payward’s stock at $20 billion and is designed to accelerate Kraken’s expansion across Asia.
- Reap brings a stablecoin-based cross-border payment and trade payment infrastructure to Kraken’s stack.
Kraken’s parent company Payward Inc. has agreed to acquire Hong Kong-based Reap Technologies for $600 million in a cash-and-stock deal, marking one of the largest bets yet by a global crypto exchange on stablecoin payment infrastructure in Asia, according to Bloomberg. The transaction values Payward’s shares issued in the deal at an equity value of $20 billion, effectively confirming the level Kraken reached in its last round of financing before IPO preparations began.
Reap is a financial technology company that is building a stablecoin-enabled infrastructure for business payments, including cross-border payments, corporate cards, and expense management, through its flagship Reap Direct product that integrates fiat and stablecoin rails for corporate customers. Headquartered in Hong Kong, the company has been expanding its global headquarters in the city to “take advantage of payment opportunities” as local regulators roll out a licensing system for fiat-referenced stablecoins, positioning itself as a beneficiary of that policy change. In a blog post on its site, Reap states that “stablecoins are the future of cross-border payments,” saying that blockchain-based rails can remove intermediaries and significantly reduce transaction costs for businesses.
Payward and Kraken CEO Arjun Sethi said in a Bloomberg report that the stock portion of the deal is being issued at a value of $20 billion, indicating that the company wants to stop its M&A spending at the same level as its increase in late 2025. In that $800 million funding round, Kraken told investors it would use the capital to expand into Latin America, the Asia-Pacific region and EMEA while expanding offerings “beyond cryptocurrencies to include additional asset classes, sophisticated trading tools, advanced skills services, and advanced institutional payments,” as reported by Yahoo Finance.
The acquisition of Reap comes just weeks after Kraken confirmed to CNBC that it had filed for a private public offering in the United States, with the second most recent transaction valued between $13.3 billion and $20 billion depending on the investor. In a recent crypto.news story, analysts noted that Hong Kong’s decision to license fiat-backed stablecoins and tighten regulations on virtual asset dealers is aimed at making the city a hub for tokenized currencies, a hub that makes Reap’s Hong Kong base more important to Kraken’s growth.
Kraken’s move also taps into a broader trend of exchanges racing to lock in stablecoin rails in Asia as businesses increasingly acquire dollar-pegged tokens for trading and remittances, a pattern highlighted in a previous crypto.news story about the city’s regulatory pivot and a separate story on how regional demand is adjusting to on-chain liquidity. By absorbing Reap’s infrastructure and licenses, Payward is betting that controlling dollar and stablecoin payment flows in and out of Asia will be as important to its future as spot and derivatives trading is emerging today.
