Kraken Owner Payward to Acquire Bitnomial for $550M, Securing Crypto Derivatives Full Stack US Licensed CFTC
Kraken owner Payward has agreed to acquire Bitnomial in a deal worth up to $550 million in cash and stock, giving it firm control over the fully licensed US crypto derivatives stack as it grows deeper into regulated markets.
The transaction values Payward at $20 billion and is expected to close in the first half of 2026, subject to customary conditions and regulatory filings with the Futures Trading Commission.
Bitnomial stands out as the first crypto-native platform in the US to secure all three licenses required to operate a full derivatives business: a designated contract market, a derivatives clearinghouse, and a futures commission broker. Those permits allow it to operate an exchange, clear trades, and provide sales services within a single regulatory framework.
By acquiring Bitnomial, Payward gains an infrastructure that could take years to build. The exchange has spent more than a decade building a system designed for digital assets, including crypto settlement, crypto collateral, and ongoing trading. The deal brings that foundation under Payward’s ecosystem, which includes Kraken and recently acquired futures platform NinjaTrader.
Payward Co-CEO Arjun Sethi said clearing infrastructure is shaping the way markets work, pointing to settlement systems and margin models as the core of other innovations. He said the US lacks a built-in clearing infrastructure for digital assets, making Bitnomial’s platform a strategic target.
Bitnomial founder Luke Hoersten said the company is building its exchange and clearinghouse from the ground up for crypto markets. He pointed out features such as infinite futures, crypto-settled products, and an integrated trading book across the board, futures, and options as capabilities that legacy systems can support without redesign.
Busy week for Kraken
The acquisition extends Payward’s push into derivatives, a segment that has become the core of crypto trading volumes. While Kraken remains a large trading company, it is trailing some global competitors in trading and is focusing on developing derivatives and multi-asset capabilities through acquisitions.
The company’s biggest move came in 2025 with its $1.5 billion purchase of NinjaTrader, which gave it access to US futures markets and access to a large base of retail traders. The Bitnomial Agreement builds on that strategy by adding a fully managed derivatives infrastructure layer.
The deal also strengthens Payward Services, a business-to-business infrastructure division. With the integration of a single API, banks, fintech firms, and brokerages will be able to offer US regulated derivatives and services such as crypto trading, staking, and token allocations.
Payward positioned the project as an infrastructure play rather than a traditional acquisition, positioning Bitnomial’s regulatory stack as the foundation for building the next phase of the US crypto derivatives markets.
Earlier this week, Deutsche Börse received a total of $200 million from Kraken to expand the institution’s crypto services, as the exchange disclosed security-related incidents affecting a small number of accounts. And this week, Kraken confirmed a private IPO as its valuation dropped to $13.3 billion.
