Payward, the parent company of the Kraken cryptocurrency exchange, announced on Friday that it has entered into a “definitive agreement” to acquire Bitnomial in a deal that values the US-licensed cryptocurrency and derivatives exchange’s equity at $20 billion.
Bitnomial is the “first” crypto-native exchange in the United States to hold all three regulatory licenses from the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), including exchange, clearinghouse, and brokerage permits, according to Payward’s announcement.
“Settlement mechanics, margin models, and contract structures define what products can exist and who can access them. The US has had no clearing infrastructure built for digital assets,” Arjun Sethi, co-CEO of Payward and Kraken, said. He added:
“Bitnomial spent a decade building it: crypto settlement, crypto collateral, continuous 24/7 markets. These are capabilities that cannot be retrofitted onto legacy systems. They have to be built natively.”
Payward will use Bitnomial’s infrastructure to offer spot margin trading, perpetual futures contracts and options trading to US clients, the company said.
Payward’s business clients can also integrate crypto services for their users, including spot crypto trading, tokenized stocks, crypto derivatives and fiat onramps through Payward Services, an application programming interface (API).
The announcement follows Kraken’s expansion into tokenized stocks, tokenized perpetual futures trading and the company securing a limited-purpose account with the Federal Reserve, a first for the crypto industry.
Related: Deutsche Börse invests $200 million in Kraken parent Payward
Kraken secures Federal Reserve limited-purpose master account
In March 2026, Kraken became the first crypto company to gain approval for a limited-purpose master account, which was issued by the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City, one of the US central bank’s 12 regional districts.
The account gives Kraken access to the Federal Reserve’s central payment system used by banks, credit unions and other traditional financial institutions, so it can settle transactions directly through the central bank’s Fedwire platform.
However, the limited-purpose master account has a term of one year and has some restrictions.
Kraken’s limited-purpose account is similar to the ‘skinny’ Federal Reserve master accounts proposed by Federal Reserve Governor Christopher Waller and supported by Wyoming Senator Cynthia Lummis in 2025.
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