Kraken’s parent company Payward has struck a partnership with SoFi that connects a major US digital asset exchange to a nationally chartered bank’s real-time settlement rails. Under the deal announced this week, Payward joins the SoFi Exchange Network, SoFi’s bank-issued stablecoin SoFiUSD gets listed on Kraken, and SoFi routes its own crypto orders through Kraken Prime, Payward’s institutional brokerage service.
The two-way design is what makes the deal unusual. Most crypto and banking partnerships run one direction, with a bank offering crypto exposure to its customers or a crypto firm getting a banking partner. This one works in both directions, and each side is supplying something the other cannot easily build.
What each side gets
SoFi has 15.8 million members and offers crypto trading inside its app. By routing those orders through Kraken Prime, which uses smart order routing to evaluate pricing and market depth across supported venues in real time, SoFi gets access to liquidity across multiple trading venues rather than a single order book. The company says that should produce better pricing for members on trades they already make, without changing the app experience for retail users.
Payward gets entry to the SoFi Exchange Network, a real-time settlement network that lets institutional clients clear and settle US dollar transactions 24 hours a day, seven days a week. That extends settlement beyond traditional banking hours for entities that already operate around the clock, and Kraken’s institutional clients gain access to the same rails for moving dollars across both networks. SoFiUSD itself is a dollar-backed stablecoin issued by SoFi Bank, launched in 2026 for payments and settlement, with reserves held in cash and short-term US Treasuries and redeemable one-to-one for dollars. Listing it on Kraken puts a bank-issued token in front of one of the largest crypto retail and institutional audiences in the world.
The companies also flagged qualified custody services as a possibility as the relationship expands, which would let SoFi hold customer digital assets under qualified custody standards rather than relying on less regulated arrangements. Payward also gains access to SoFi’s Big Business Banking capabilities, giving the crypto infrastructure firm a bank relationship it can build treasury and payment products on.
Part of a bigger Payward push
The SoFi deal fits a pattern. Payward has spent the past year building ties with traditional finance ahead of a planned public listing, having confidentially submitted a draft registration statement to the SEC in November 2025. Earlier this month, London Stock Exchange Group reportedly partnered with Payward to offer tokenized versions of leading UK equities through LSE 24, a new 24/5 trading venue set to launch in 2027. In August, Kraken added round-the-clock exposure to the S&P 500 through its funded trading program, with commodities expected to follow.
Kraken has also expanded into public markets through xStocks, the tokenized equities platform developed by Backed Finance, which Kraken acquired in early 2026. The exchange has used the platform to give eligible users exposure to shares tied to the SpaceX and Jersey Mike’s IPOs through tokenized equities and, in some cases, direct share allocations. Payward’s product stack now spans NinjaTrader for futures, Breakout for funded trading, CF Benchmarks for index data and Kraken Prime for institutions. The SoFi partnership adds bank-grade settlement to that stack, addressing the chronic weakness of crypto platforms, which is that moving dollars in and out still runs on banking hours.
The settlement problem it solves
The gap the partnership targets is real. Crypto trades continuously, but US dollar settlement traditionally stops at banking hours, weekends and holidays. Platforms have worked around this with prefunded accounts, third-party processors or stablecoins, each adding cost or complexity. By wiring a crypto exchange directly into a bank’s instant payment rails, the two companies are shortening that chain. A Kraken institutional client can settle dollars at 3am Sunday rather than waiting for Monday morning, and SoFi members buying crypto get deeper liquidity behind the quotes they see in the app.
SoFi CEO Anthony Noto framed the deal around the same idea, saying the financial system should not shut down when markets stay open. The company has been building what it calls an always-on economy strategy, combining its national bank charter with real-time payment networks and now crypto liquidity.
The deal also lands in a regulatory environment that has warmed to bank-crypto integration. The GENIUS Act established a federal framework for stablecoins last year, and bank-issued tokens like SoFiUSD sit inside that framework rather than alongside it. Banks including U.S. Bancorp have run live pilots with their own stablecoins on public blockchains, and a consortium of 21 financial institutions announced plans earlier this year to form a company for joint stablecoin issuance targeting a dollar token in 2027. Payward’s move puts one of the largest crypto exchanges inside that institutional perimeter rather than outside it.
What happens next depends on execution. Listing SoFiUSD on Kraken is straightforward, but the deeper integration, qualified custody, treasury products and cross-border settlement, is where the deal could become more than a marketing arrangement. Payward’s IPO timeline has reportedly slipped several times, and partnerships like this one are part of the case for why a crypto infrastructure company deserves a public market valuation closer to a bank’s than an exchange’s. The first test is whether SoFi’s retail crypto volume visibly improves under Kraken Prime routing, a number both companies will be watching internally.