A Kraken spokesperson confirmed the deal involves existing shares rather than newly issued stock.
Crypto News
Deutsche Börse AG is investing $200 million in Payward Inc., the parent company of crypto exchange Kraken. The Frankfurt-based stock exchange operator will receive a 1.5% fully diluted stake through a secondary share purchase. The deal is pending regulatory approval and is expected to close before the end of June 2026.
The transaction places Kraken's total valuation at roughly $13.3 billion. That figure is a step down from the $20 billion valuation Kraken carried during an $800 million fundraising round in November 2025. A Kraken spokesperson confirmed the deal involves existing shares rather than newly issued stock.
The two companies first announced a strategic partnership in December 2025. That agreement covered spot trading, tokenized markets, derivatives, custody, settlement, and collateral management. It also included Kraken's integration with 360T, a Deutsche Börse subsidiary that operates one of the world's largest foreign-exchange trading venues.
The partnership produced its first public result in February 2026. That month, xStocks launched on 360X, Deutsche Börse's regulated trading venue. The product allows trading of blockchain-based tokens tied to real equities and ETFs, each backed 1:1 by underlying assets held with licensed custodians.
A Kraken spokesperson described the investment as a step toward building a "single, cohesive infrastructure for institutional clients. " Deutsche Börse has framed the deal as part of its strategy to expand access to tokenized investment products and blockchain-based securities. Both companies say the goal is to bring crypto and traditionalfinance closer together rather than keeping them as separate systems.
Ruchir Gupta, co-founder of Gyld Finance, said traditional institutions are finding it too difficult to build crypto capabilities from scratch. "We're seeing a clear wave of consolidation and partnerships as traditional financial institutions move to catch up with crypto, particularly around tokenizedassets," Gupta said. He added that buying stakes in established firms is the most practical route available to them.
The Deutsche Börse move follows a similar deal by Intercontinental Exchange, the parent of the New York Stock Exchange. ICE invested roughly $200 million in crypto exchange OKX earlier in 2026, valuing OKX at $25 billion. In March, Nasdaq also partnered with Kraken and its subsidiary Backed to develop an equities transformation gateway.
Kraken filed confidentially for a U.S. IPO with the Securities and Exchange Commission in November 2025, but that listing has since been paused. A Kraken-affiliated SPAC, KRAKacquisition Corp., completed a $345 million public offering in January 2026 and is currently searching for an acquisition target valued at up to $10 billion.
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