Payward to Acquire Bitnomial for Up to $550M

Payward, the owner of Kraken, has agreed to acquire Bitnomial in a deal valued at up to $550 million in cash and stock. The transaction is expected to close in the first half of 2026, subject to customary conditions and regulatory filings with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission.

Bitnomial is described as the first crypto-native U.S. platform to secure all three licenses required for a full-stack derivatives business: a designated contract market, a derivatives clearing organization, and a futures commission merchant. Payward plans to bring Bitnomial’s exchange and clearing infrastructure into its broader ecosystem, which includes Kraken and its recently acquired futures platform NinjaTrader.