Payward to Purchase CFTC-Licensed Exchange Bitnomial in Major Acquisition
Kraken's parent firm Payward has highlighted Bitnomial's comprehensive regulatory framework as the key motivation behind the planned acquisition.
On Friday, Payward, which serves as the parent entity behind the Kraken digital asset exchange, revealed it has signed a "definitive agreement" for the acquisition of Bitnomial, a cryptocurrency and derivatives trading platform licensed in the United States; under the terms of the transaction, Bitnomial's equity is valued at $20 billion.
According to Payward's public statement, Bitnomial represents the "first" exchange native to cryptocurrency in the United States to possess the complete set of three regulatory licenses issued by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), which encompasses exchange operations, clearinghouse functions, and brokerage authorizations.
"Settlement mechanics, margin models, and contract structures define what products can exist and who can access them. The US has had no clearing infrastructure built for digital assets," stated Arjun Sethi, Co-CEO of Payward and Kraken. He added:
"Bitnomial spent a decade building it: crypto settlement, crypto collateral, continuous 24/7 markets. These are capabilities that cannot be retrofitted onto legacy systems. They have to be built natively."
According to the company's announcement, Payward plans to leverage Bitnomial's existing infrastructure to provide American customers with spot margin trading capabilities, perpetual futures contracts and options trading services.
Additionally, Payward Services, an application programming interface (API), will enable Payward's corporate clients to incorporate crypto-related services for their end users, such as spot cryptocurrency trading, tokenized equities, cryptocurrency derivatives products and fiat currency onramps.
This acquisition announcement comes on the heels of Kraken's recent business expansion into tokenized equities, tokenized perpetual futures trading products and the platform's achievement of securing a limited-purpose account with the United States Federal Reserve, marking an industry first for cryptocurrency companies.
Kraken secures Federal Reserve limited-purpose master account
During March 2026, Kraken achieved the distinction of becoming the first cryptocurrency platform to receive authorization for a limited-purpose master account, granted by the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City, which represents one of the 12 regional districts of the US central banking system.
This master account provides Kraken with direct access to the Federal Reserve's central payment infrastructure utilized by traditional banking institutions, credit unions and other established financial entities, enabling the company to process and settle transactions directly via the Fed's Fedwire platform.
Nevertheless, the limited-purpose master account carries a one-year term and comes with certain operational restrictions.
