Payward, the parent company of crypto exchange Kraken, has agreed to acquire Chicago-based Bitnomial for up to $550 million in cash and stock. The transaction values Payward’s equity at $20 billion and is expected to close in the first half of 2026, pending CFTC approvals. Bitnomial is the first and only crypto-native company in the United States to hold all three CFTC-issued licenses required to operate a vertically integrated derivatives business. The acquisition positions Kraken to offer CFTC-regulated spot margin, perpetual futures, and options to U.S. customers for the first time.
Three CFTC Licenses Under One Roof
Bitnomial was founded in 2014 by Luke Hoersten, a former FX trader at Allston Trading. Over the course of a decade, the company assembled a regulatory stack that no other crypto-native firm in the U.S. has matched. Its exchange subsidiary received Designated Contract Market (DCM) status from the CFTC in 2020. Its brokerage arm earned Futures Commission Merchant (FCM) approval in 2022. And in December 2023, the CFTC approved its clearinghouse as a Derivatives Clearing Organization (DCO), completing the full set.
| License | Type | Granted | Function |
|---|---|---|---|
| DCM | Designated Contract Market | 2020 | Operates derivatives exchange |
| FCM | Futures Commission Merchant | 2022 | Clearing brokerage services |
| DCO | Derivatives Clearing Organization | Dec 2023 | Clearinghouse for futures and options |
That vertical integration is the core asset Payward is buying. Building a CFTC-regulated clearinghouse from scratch requires years of regulatory engagement and significant capital. Bitnomial is also the only U.S. exchange offering physically delivered, margined digital asset derivatives, meaning customers receive actual ownership of digital assets on a leveraged basis rather than a cash payout at settlement. In September 2025, Bitnomial became the first CFTC-regulated exchange to accept digital assets as margin collateral, starting with Bitcoin and Ether.
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Payward Frames Acquisition as Infrastructure, Not M&A
Payward Co-CEO Arjun Sethi framed the deal as a structural play rather than a traditional acquisition. “We are not acquiring a company. We are adding the infrastructure layer that makes the next generation of US derivatives possible,” he said.
Sethi emphasized that the U.S. has lacked clearing infrastructure purpose-built for digital assets. “Settlement mechanics, margin models, and contract structures define what products can exist and who can access them,” 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.”
Kraken CEO Dave Ripley confirmed the deal on X, noting that it was valued at $550 million on a $20 billion Payward valuation. He said the combination extends Payward’s infrastructure to encompass the full stack of CFTC licenses, enabling product expansion across both traditional and crypto finance in the U.S.
Spot Margin, Perpetuals, Options: What Kraken Unlocks
Payward plans to integrate Bitnomial’s trading and clearing infrastructure across three platforms: Kraken (its consumer exchange), NinjaTrader (its active trader platform, acquired for $1.5 billion in 2025), and Payward Services, its business-to-business infrastructure arm. Through Payward Services, banks, fintechs, and brokerages will be able to access regulated U.S. crypto derivatives through a single API integration covering futures, options, and leveraged products inside a CFTC-regulated framework.
The product roadmap starts with CFTC-regulated spot margin trading, perpetual futures, and options for U.S. customers. Bitnomial had already launched the first U.S. perpetual futures contract on its clearinghouse in early 2024 and won CFTC approval for spot crypto trading in December 2025, becoming the first platform to list both leveraged and non-leveraged spot crypto products on a federally regulated commodities exchange.
A $750 Million Week for Payward
The Bitnomial acquisition caps a busy week for Payward. On April 14, Deutsche Börse, operator of the Frankfurt Stock Exchange, announced a $200 million investment in Payward through a secondary share purchase, acquiring a 1.5% fully diluted stake in the company. That deal valued Payward at $13.3 billion, notably lower than the $20 billion figure in the Bitnomial agreement.
The Deutsche Börse partnership, first announced in December 2025, covers trading, custody, settlement, collateral management, and tokenized assets, with a focus on institutional access. The investment came alongside Payward Co-CEO Sethi’s confirmation at the Semafor World Economy Summit that Kraken’s confidential S-1 filing with the SEC, submitted in November 2025, remains active. Kraken paused its IPO plans in March 2026 due to market conditions, but Sethi said a public offering is “still on the table.”
Completing the Global Derivatives Map
With Bitnomial, Payward now has regulated derivatives infrastructure across all its major markets. The company acquired the first licensed crypto futures platform in the UK in 2019 and launched a regulated EU derivatives offering in 2025. Bitnomial fills the last major gap: the U.S. onshore market, where demand for regulated crypto derivatives has grown significantly but options have remained limited compared to offshore venues.
| Market | Entry | Method |
|---|---|---|
| United Kingdom | 2019 | Licensed crypto futures platform acquisition |
| European Union | 2025 | Regulated EU derivatives launch |
| United States | 2025 (NinjaTrader) | $1.5B acquisition of active trader platform |
| United States (CFTC) | 2026 (Bitnomial) | $550M acquisition of full CFTC-licensed derivatives stack |
Bitnomial’s investor base reflects the institutional interest behind its regulatory stack. Backers include Franklin Templeton, Electric Capital, Jump Trading, Coinbase Ventures, and RRE Ventures. PJT Partners served as Bitnomial’s exclusive financial advisor for the transaction, with Haynes Boone as legal counsel. Payward retained Jones Day as legal advisor.
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What Comes Next for Kraken in the U.S.
The deal is subject to standard closing conditions, including CFTC regulatory filings. If it closes on schedule, Payward will control a fully vertically integrated derivatives platform in the U.S. at a time when comprehensive market structure legislation, particularly the CLARITY Act, remains stalled in Congress. Payward has said that passage of such legislation remains one of its top policy priorities.
Between the Bitnomial acquisition, the Deutsche Börse partnership, the NinjaTrader purchase, and an active IPO filing, Payward is building a regulated financial infrastructure company that extends well beyond its origins as a crypto spot exchange. Whether the public markets will get a chance to price that transformation depends on when Kraken pulls the trigger on its listing.
