Nasdaq Is Investing $100 Million In Kraken Parent Payward At $21 Billion VALUATION-BLOOMBERG News - Rtrs
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Nasdaq Invests $100M in Kraken Parent Payward at $21B Valuation
Deutsche Börse's April stake implied a $13.3 billion valuation. Five months on, Nasdaq is paying at $21 billion.
Nasdaq invests $100M in Kraken parent at $21B valuation: Report
Nasdaq invested $100 million in Payward as part of its push toward tokenized stock products with round-the-clock trading.
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 parent Payward partners with SoFi on stablecoin, 24/7 settlement
The deal will bring SoFiUSD to Kraken, connect Payward to SoFi’s 24/7 dollar settlement network and give SoFi access to digital asset liquidity through Kraken Prime.
SpaceX was officially included in the Nasdaq 100 index this week; historical warnings point to post-inclusion volatility. TeraWulf's Q1 HPC leasing revenue surpassed mining's high-margin annualized revenue of $630 million for the first time.
According to ChainCatcher and BBX data, the world's largest IPO completed its index inclusion milestone yesterday, marking a historic turning point in the valuation logic of mining companies' AI transformation. Key developments are as follows: SpaceX, Inc. (NASDAQ: $SPCX) was officially included in the Nasdaq 100 index this week, becoming the first company in history to have its largest single IPO ($75 billion) included in the Nasdaq 100. CoinDesk also issued a historic warning: "The previous two largest additions to the index—Palantir ($PLTR) in December 2024 and Strategy ($MSTR) in early 2025—both experienced a period of decline after inclusion, rather than initiating a new round of growth." Analysts pointed out that passive funds tracking the Nasdaq 100 completed a "forced buy" at the time of inclusion, and without new fundamental catalysts, the stock price often corrects after the technical buying subsides. SpaceX currently faces specific risks including: a net loss of approximately $4.27 billion in Q1 2026 (primarily due to xAI integration expenses), a $2 billion bond issuance plan, and a 3.4% equity dilution from the $60 billion acquisition of Cursor/Anysphere; Morningstar maintains its fair value estimate of $62 per share, implying a downside of approximately 70% from the current market price. For the market holding SpaceX Bitcoin (18,712 coins, approximately $1.2 billion, custodied in Coinbase Prime), Nasdaq 100 inclusion will trigger larger-scale SPCX holdings by passive funds, further narrowing the indirect exposure of traditional index investors to Bitcoin assets. According to the latest analysis, TeraWulf Inc. (NASDAQ: $WULF) reported $21 million in high-performance computing (HPC) leasing revenue in Q1 2026, accounting for approximately 62% of its total revenue of $34 million. This marks the first time TeraWulf has surpassed Bitcoin mining revenue—a historic reversal in revenue structure since its transformation into an AI/HPC infrastructure company. This represents a 117% increase compared to the $9.7 million in HPC revenue in Q4 2025. The company currently has AI/HPC leases totaling over 522 megawatts signed with Core42 and Fluidstack, with an expected annualized high-margin revenue of approximately $630 million. Its energy mix consists of nuclear power and hydropower, with an average electricity cost of approximately $0.035/kWh, among the lowest of its peers in the mining industry. The company is also developing a new campus in Kentucky, adding approximately 480 megawatts of grid connection capacity; analysts have significantly raised their target price range, with Keefe Bruyette & Woods from $23 to $37, and Clear...
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.