Wells Fargo is in discussions with Payward, the company that operates the Kraken exchange, about a deal that would have Payward supply liquidity for crypto trading at the bank, CoinDesk reported on Oct. 7, citing two persons familiar with the matter.
The discussions are ongoing and may not produce a deal, according to the report.
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What Payward Would Do for Wells Fargo
A liquidity provider lets a bank offer crypto trading without building its own market infrastructure. Payward already sells technology of that kind to banks through its Payward Services unit, which also serves fintechs, brokerages and payment companies.
Wells Fargo has been adding crypto exposure. It offers spot bitcoin ETFs to eligible wealth clients, has backed compliance firm Elliptic and trading technology provider Talos, and has joined a consortium developing a dollar stablecoin. It also hired former Citi banker Mark Gracia for its digital assets team earlier this year.
Payward’s Widening Bank Ties
Wells Fargo was also Nasdaq’s exclusive capital markets adviser on its September agreement to put $100 million into Payward, a deal that valued the company at $21 billion.
Payward is separately in talks with BNY over a broader partnership covering crypto products, custody, wealth management, trading, payments and infrastructure, CoinDesk reported on Oct. 2. One of the people in that report said elements of the arrangement could resemble “the infrastructure component of Payward’s recent agreement with Nasdaq.”
All of these come as Payward is looking to go public next year.
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