NEW YORK, Sept. 10, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Nasdaq (NASDAQ:NDAQ) today announced an expansion of its relationship with Payward, the parent company of Kraken, including an agreement by Nasdaq Ventures to invest $100 million, the continued advancement of the companies' work on the Nasdaq Equity Token (NET) framework, and a new market surveillance agreement.

Through Nasdaq Ventures, the company's strategic investment arm, Nasdaq invests in technologies and market infrastructure that support the long-term evolution of global capital markets. The investment in Payward reflects the strategic nature of the work the two organizations are advancing together.

Specifically, Nasdaq is partnering with Payward to support the continued evolution of tokenized market infrastructure while maintaining an issuer-centric approach grounded in strong governance, regulatory compliance, and market integrity. Within Nasdaq, the collaboration is being led by Digital Liquidity Networks (DLN), the company's markets business focused on building the always-on market infrastructure needed to help capital, assets and liquidity move more efficiently across the world.