Payward, the company behind crypto exchange Kraken, has reached an agreement to acquire Bitnomial in a deal valued at up to $550 million in cash and stock. This acquisition positions Payward to operate a fully regulated U.S. crypto derivatives platform and deepens its expansion into strictly supervised segments of the American market.
Regulatory breakthrough with Bitnomial
The deal gives Payward access to infrastructure developed over more than ten years by Bitnomial, a Chicago-based company known for its comprehensive regulatory stack. Bitnomial stands out as the first crypto-native firm in the U.S. to hold all three key licenses needed to run a full derivatives operation: designated contract market, derivatives clearing organization, and futures commission merchant.
With these approvals, Bitnomial is able to provide an integrated platform for trading, clearing, and brokering crypto derivatives within a unified regulatory framework. The acquisition gives Payward technology that includes crypto settlement, crypto collateral, and continuous trading — systems that would have required years to develop independently.
Founded by Luke Hoersten, Bitnomial built its core systems specifically around digital assets. The platform’s features include perpetual futures, crypto-settled products, and a unified trading book that spans spot, futures, and options markets. Hoersten underscored that legacy financial infrastructures cannot deliver these capabilities without significant redesign.
Payward, headquartered in San Francisco, operates Kraken, one of the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchanges with a global user base and tens of billions in daily trading volume. Bitnomial, based in Chicago, focuses on developing regulated trading and clearing technology for the U.S. digital asset market and caters to institutional firms looking for compliant derivatives solutions.
Expanding Payward’s U.S. strategy
This acquisition continues Payward’s recent string of deals aimed at strengthening its derivatives market position. In 2025, Payward moved decisively into the U.S. futures segment through its $1.5 billion purchase of NinjaTrader, a trading platform with a strong retail presence. The Bitnomial deal adds another regulatory layer, bolstering Payward’s ability to offer compliant, institution-grade products.
Payward’s Co-CEO Arjun Sethi emphasized the importance of modern clearing infrastructure for the evolution of derivatives markets. He pointed to the lack of native digital asset solutions in the U.S. as a key reason for targeting Bitnomial.
Clearing infrastructure defines how risk is managed and how new financial products are built, Sethi highlighted, noting that Bitnomial’s platform addressed a gap in the U.S. market for crypto-native solutions.
The acquisition also expands the reach of Payward Services, the firm’s B2B arm. With Bitnomial’s licenses, Payward can provide banks, fintech companies, and brokerages access to regulated U.S. derivatives through a single API, alongside other products like crypto trading and tokenized assets.
Payward has characterized the transaction as an investment in market infrastructure, positioning the combined regulatory assets as the foundation for building advanced U.S. crypto derivatives markets in the coming years.
Recent developments at Kraken
The purchase comes during a busy period for Payward and Kraken. Earlier this week, German financial giant Deutsche Börse acquired a $200 million stake in Kraken to strengthen its foothold in institutional crypto services. That move followed the disclosure that Kraken had experienced limited insider-related security incidents, affecting only a small number of accounts.
In addition, Kraken confirmed it had confidentially filed for an initial public offering as its reported valuation adjusted to $13.3 billion. The new Bitnomial deal, valued at $550 million, is expected to close in the first half of 2026, pending regulatory approval by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. Recent developments underscore Payward’s accelerated effort to secure leadership in the U.S. derivatives market while expanding its multi-asset offerings.
