Kraken's parent company Payward has signed a definitive agreement to acquire Bitnomial, the only crypto-native firm in the United States to hold all three CFTC licenses needed to run a vertically integrated derivatives business.
Singapore Summit: Meet the largest APAC brokers you know (and those you still don't!).
What's in the Deal
The deal is valued at up to $550 million. Bitnomial's regulatory footprint is what makes the acquisition notable.
The company holds a Designated Contract Market (DCM) license for its exchange, a Derivatives Clearing Organization (DCO) license for its clearinghouse, and a Futures Commission Merchant (FCM) license for its brokerage arm.
Building that stack independently would have taken years and repeated regulatory engagement. Kraken bought it in one transaction. "The shape of a market is determined by its clearing infrastructure, not its front end," said Arjun Sethi, Co-CEO of Payward and Kraken
"Bitnomial spent a decade building it: crypto settlement, crypto collateral, continuous 24/7 markets. These are capabilities that cannot be retrofitted onto legacy systems."
That last point is central to the deal's logic. Bitnomial was built for digital assets from the start, not adapted from existing derivatives infrastructure.
That origin allowed it to introduce the first U.S. perpetual futures, CFTC-regulated crypto margin collateral, and a unified order book spanning spot and derivatives — products that conventional market operators have struggled to replicate.
"Joining Payward means we can now build that future at the scale it deserves," said Luke Hoersten, Bitnomial's founder and CEO.
- Kraken Confirms IPO Filing, but Valuation Dropped 33% in Latest $200M Funding
- Kraken: We Are Being Extorted by Criminals
- Kraken Steps Up Speed Race with New Equinix Colocation Service for Crypto Traders
What Kraken Gets
Kraken can now offer U.S. clients a regulated suite of derivatives products — spot margin, perpetual futures, and options — putting it in direct competition with Coinbase on one side and CME Group on the other.
The acquisition also extends the reach of Payward Services, Kraken's B2B infrastructure platform. Partner firms — fintechs, banks, brokerages — can now connect to a fully regulated U.S. derivatives offering through a single API rather than assembling the licensing and clearing infrastructure themselves.
The deal values Payward's equity at $20 billion. Combined with Kraken's existing licensed derivatives operations in the UK and EU, the Bitnomial acquisition fills the one gap that mattered most for institutional expansion.
The approach itself carries a broader message for regulated markets: when the regulatory clock is a competitive constraint, acquisition of an existing licensed infrastructure often moves faster than building one.
