Kraken parent Payward partners with SoFi on stablecoin, 24/7 settlement
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SoFi Links Banking Network and Stablecoin to Kraken in New Deal
Kraken will list SoFiUSD and gain access to SoFi’s round-the-clock dollar settlement network, while Kraken Prime will execute trades for SoFi’s crypto customers.
Nasdaq Is Investing $100 Million In Kraken Parent Payward At $21 Billion VALUATION-BLOOMBERG News - Rtrs
TreeNews News, Nasdaq is Investing $100 Million in Kraken Parent Payward at $21 Billion VALUATION-BLOOMBERG News - Rtrs
Kraken Parent Payward Joins Glasswing, Gets Access to Claude Mythos to Hunt Security Flaws
Payward is joining Project Glasswing, Anthropic’s program for giving vetted organizations access to its powerful cybersecurity AI.
Kraken parent Payward revenue rises 17% as trading volume falls in Q2
Payward grew revenue despite weaker crypto spot activity, as funded accounts jumped 42% and a growing share of revenue came from outside transaction-based activity.
Kraken's parent company wins $22 million arbitration case against auditing firm Mazars.
Odaily that Kraken's parent company, Payward, has won an arbitration against its former auditing firm, Mazars USA, with the arbitrator ruling that Mazars must pay Payward $22 million. Payward is currently seeking confirmation of the arbitration award and a final judgment from the Delaware Court of Chancery. The controversy stemmed from the peak of "Operation Choke Point 2.0" in 2022. Payward claims that Mazars abruptly withdrew from an audit of Kraken that was nearly complete, without finding any problems with the company, but this move damaged Kraken's reputation and forced it to spend years and significant legal fees clarifying its situation. Payward co-CEO Arjun Sethi stated that auditing is not a "gift" for crypto companies, but rather a critical infrastructure for maintaining trust with banks, licenses, counterparties, and regulators. An auditing firm withdrawing without finding anything negative leaves the company unjustly shrouded in suspicion. "Operation Choke Point 2.0" is the crypto industry's term for the regulatory pressure exerted during the Biden administration, referring to the informal pressure exerted by US regulators on banks to restrict services to crypto businesses after the FTX collapse. Sethi stated that the US FDIC sent at least 25 letters to 24 banks, demanding that they suspend or avoid expanding their crypto-related businesses. This ruling is also seen as a legal counterattack by the crypto industry against such regulatory pressure.
Kraken is in talks to acquire a 15% stake in Aave, valuing the company at $385 million, with plans to expand into DeFi asset management.
According to Mars Finance, on June 26th, sources familiar with the matter revealed that Payward, the parent company of crypto trading platform Kraken, is in talks with decentralized lending protocol Aave to exchange 35,000 Ethereum for 250,000 AAVE tokens and a 15% stake in Aave Group, valuing the company at approximately $385 million and involving a transaction valued at approximately $71 million. Sources also indicated that Kraken is simultaneously seeking co-financing for the deal. This investment is positioned as the first in a series of transactions in Payward's asset management business, signifying Kraken's more proactive role in DeFi and other investment areas. Sources stated that Payward has ample capital backing and that existing partners have expressed interest in participating in such opportunities. Aave is currently the largest decentralized lending protocol, but in April of this year, it was embroiled in one of the most severe crises in DeFi history: hackers exploited a vulnerability in the KelpDAO cross-chain bridge to mint approximately $292 million worth of uncollateralized rsETH, which was then used as collateral to lend real assets on Aave, resulting in $190 million to $230 million in bad debt for the protocol. Although Aave's own smart contracts were never compromised, the incident still triggered the withdrawal of over $8 billion in deposits, highlighting the cascading risks of interconnected DeFi ecosystems. Kraken has been making frequent acquisitions recently, having previously announced in April the acquisition of crypto derivatives exchange Bitnomial for up to $550 million, and reportedly raising a new round of funding at a valuation of $20 billion, actively paving the way for a potential IPO.