Timeline
- 7.0
BNY Mellon in talks with Kraken parent over infrastructure partnership
BNY Mellon (BNY) is in talks with Kraken parent company Payward over a potential digital-asset infrastructure partnership, people familiar with the matter said, in a report dated October 3. The discussions could cover digital assets, custody, trading, payments, wealth management and other financial market infrastructure, with services to be offered to banks, exchanges and asset managers through Payward Services. A tie-up would connect the world's largest custodian bank with the infrastructure that has powered Kraken, extending BNY's existing custody, clearing, payments and wealth-management businesses onto digital-asset rails. The talks remain unconfirmed and are described as early-stage discussions sourced to unnamed people. The arrangement could resemble the infrastructure component of Payward's recent commercial agreement with Nasdaq, according to CoinDesk. BNY already provides custody, asset servicing, clearing, payments and wealth-management services to institutional clients, while Payward Services says it gives fintechs, banks, exchanges and onchain platforms direct access to the infrastructure behind Kraken.
- 7.5
Payward expands Kraken with $2B acquisition push - Crypto News
Payward, the parent company of the Kraken cryptocurrency exchange, is advancing an expansion strategy anchored by roughly $2 billion in acquisitions, according to Crypto News. The push is aimed at growing the exchange's business. Payward co-CEO Arjun Sethi has said the company is unifying trading, payments, asset management and institutional services on common rails, and the reported acquisition push sits within that stated effort to build beyond a standalone crypto exchange. The acquisition programme is attributed to Payward, Kraken's parent company, rather than to the Kraken exchange itself.