Payward Inc., the company behind the well-known cryptocurrency exchange Kraken, has now wrapped up its purchase of Bitnomial. The deal equips Payward with a complete, fully licensed derivatives operation in the United States that was purpose-built from the ground up for digital assets rather than adapted from older financial systems.
This infrastructure includes the full trio of critical CFTC approvals: a Futures Commission Merchant for brokerage services, a Designated Contract Market for exchange functions, and a Derivatives Clearing Organization for settlement and clearing.
Developed over more than ten years, these components give Payward the regulatory foundation needed to roll out compliant products that meet strict U.S. standards while serving both retail and institutional clients.
The immediate focus is launching spot margin trading on Kraken for eligible U.S. customers, with perpetual futures and options slated to follow shortly afterward.
These offerings will also extend to NinjaTrader, another Payward platform, creating a seamless experience across the group’s brands.
Bitnomial itself will keep running its day-to-day business under the same licenses and structure, with Payward planning to expand its team and capacity to accelerate growth in regulated derivatives.
The acquisition also boosts Payward’s B2B infrastructure arm, known as Payward Services.
Fintech companies, banks, brokerages, and payment providers can now tap into a single API integration to deliver these regulated U.S. derivatives products to their own clients alongside existing tools for spot crypto trading, tokenized equities, staking, and fiat on-ramps and off-ramps.
Arjun Sethi, Co-CEO of both Payward and Kraken, emphasized the importance of native design in a statement tied to the closing.
He highlighted that true market innovation stems from settlement mechanics, margin models, and contract structures built specifically for crypto rather than retrofitted onto legacy setups.
This move, he noted, finally delivers a compliant US derivatives stack that opens the door to more advanced, capital-efficient products under full CFTC oversight.
The transaction, first announced in mid-April 2026 for up to $550 million in cash and stock, values Payward’s equity at $20 billion.
It marks the latest step in Payward’s multi-year global expansion strategy, which already includes acquiring the first licensed crypto futures platform in the UK back in 2019 and launching regulated derivatives services in the European Union in 2025.
This acquisition by Kraken’s parent company mirrors a clear pattern among other major players in the crypto space who are aggressively pursuing similar deals to diversify revenue streams and scale operations.
Coinbase, for instance, completed its purchase of Deribit—the world’s leading crypto options exchange—in 2025 for $2.9 billion, significantly expanding its derivatives capabilities and unifying spot, futures, and options under one roof.
Such moves allow firms to shortcut lengthy regulatory build-outs, capture growing demand for sophisticated trading tools, and position themselves more competitively in an increasingly regulated and mature market. By securing purpose-built licensed infrastructure, Payward and its peers are betting that compliant, innovative derivatives will drive the next wave of institutional and retail adoption in the United States and other major global jurisidictions.