Nasdaq Just Bet $100 Million on Kraken — Wall Street Is Moving Onchain

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Welcome back to the Daily Crypto Deep Dive. The companies are already working towards something called Nasdaq Equity Tokens, or NETS, with an expected launch in the second quarter of 2027

So today, we're going to look at what Nasdaq has actually invested in, why Kraken has become such an important part of this story, whether 24-hour stock markets really are inevitable, and the enormous battle beginning over what a tokenized stock should actually be.

Because Crypto spent years trying to break into Wall Street. Now Wall Street appears increasingly interested in importing some of Crypto's architecture for itself, and that changes everything.

First, let's establish exactly what happened. Nasdaq announced today that its venture capital arm has agreed to invest $100 million in Payward Kraken's parent company. Alongside the investment, Nasdaq and Payward are expanding an existing relationship around tokenized equities and what Nasdaq describes as always-on infrastructure. They are also entering a new market surveillance agreement. That's significant because this isn't Nasdaq simply throwing venture money at an interesting crypto company and hoping something happens. There is an actual infrastructure project attached to the investment. Nasdaq says the two companies will continue developing the operational and commercial infrastructure needed for Nasdaq equity tokens, with the current target being the second quarter of 2027

And this is where the story becomes much bigger than Kraken.

A stock market today still operates around infrastructure that would be immediately familiar to somebody who traded decades ago. There are opening bells, closing bells, weekends, settlement periods, clearing houses, different brokers and custodians, and enormous amounts of collateral moving through the system. Crypto demonstrated another possibility.

Bitcoin doesn't care that it's Sunday. Ethereum doesn't close because New York has gone home. You can transfer an asset from one wallet to another at 3 o'clock in the morning. That doesn't automatically make crypto infrastructure better than the traditional financial system, because crypto has produced spectacular failures of its own. But the concept of an asset existing on rails that effectively never close is incredibly powerful. And Nasdaq clearly understands that. Its president Tal Cohen said this next era of markets will depend on how efficiently capital and assets can move through the financial system while retaining durable liquidity. That's financial industry language, but translated into English, the question Nasdaq is asking is very simple. Why should money stop moving because the market has closed? And today's announcement is particularly interesting for this show because Kraken is a sponsor of Crypto News Today. So, a quick disclosure here. Kraken sponsoring this program obviously does not change how we analyze this deal. If there are risks or problems with tokenized equities, we'll talk about them. But it would also be ridiculous to ignore what today's announcement says about the direction Kraken itself is taking. Kraken increasingly wants to be considerably more than somewhere you buy Bitcoin or XRP.

It's trying to become part of the infrastructure connecting traditional assets and digital assets. And now Nasdaq isn't merely working with Kraken's parent company. Nasdaq Ventures is putting 100 million dollars into it. So if you've been considering trying Kraken, our listeners currently have an additional offer. Use the Kraken link in the description, create a new account and complete the qualifying trade, and you can receive 20 XRP. Terms and eligibility apply, of course. And if you've been listening to this show for a while and wondering why Kraken is one of the companies we've chosen to work with, today's story gives you a pretty good example of why they're worth watching. Now back to the bigger question. What exactly are these tokenized stocks? Kraken already has experience here through X-stocks. These are blockchain tokens representing exposure to traditional stocks and ETFs. The current X-stocks model is backed one for one by underlying shares held through custody arrangements. That means you could have a token representing exposure to something like Nvidia, Apple, or an ETF, rather than holding that asset through a conventional brokerage interface. There are important distinctions, though. Holding an X-stock does not automatically mean you legally own the underlying company share or receive normal shareholder rights, and geographic restrictions are substantial. For example, X-stocks are currently not available to retail customers in the United Kingdom, United States, Canada, or Australia. So don't hear this episode and assume you can immediately go on to Kraken in Britain and start trading tokenized Nvidia.

But Nasdaq's proposed net framework is trying to address one of the biggest criticisms of tokenization.

Nasdaq wants tokenized equities that remain attached to the protections associated with regulated securities markets. Payward co-CEO Arjun Sethi has described the next stage as taking Nasdaq equity tokens onto rails that don't close while keeping shareholder rights intact. Those last four words are critical, because another enormous fight has erupted this week involving Robinhood and AMC.