SoFi Technologies and Payward, the parent company of digital asset exchange Kraken, announced a strategic partnership on Thursday under which Payward will join the SoFi Exchange Network, list SoFi's bank-issued stablecoin SoFiUSD on its multi-asset trading platform, and supply digital asset liquidity to SoFi's 15.8 million members through Kraken Prime. The arrangement connects SoFi's real-time settlement rails, previously available to its enterprise banking clients, to Kraken's institutional customer base. Under the agreement, Payward will also leverage SoFi's Big Business Banking capabilities, with qualified custody capabilities available as the relationship expands. Neither company disclosed financial terms, revenue-sharing arrangements or exclusivity provisions.
The partnership builds on SoFi's Big Business Banking unit, launched in April, which combined the company's enterprise banking and digital asset operations into a single offering. SoFi reported crypto transaction revenue of $134.3 million in the second quarter, up 10 per cent from the first quarter, though the figure remained a small component of the company's $1.2 billion in adjusted net revenue. For Payward, the agreement extends a broader push beyond exchange operations into regulated financial infrastructure. The company applied to the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency in May for a national trust company charter to establish Payward National Trust Company, and its Wyoming-chartered bank, Kraken Financial, received a Federal Reserve master account in March, granting direct access to the central bank's payment system.
ROUND-THE-CLOCK DOLLAR SETTLEMENT
By joining the SoFi Exchange Network, known as SEN, Payward gains pathways for institutional clients to clear and settle US dollar transactions 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The extension of settlement beyond traditional banking hours addresses a long-standing mismatch between digital asset markets, which trade continuously, and the fiat banking infrastructure that supports them, which typically operates on business-day cycles. Kraken institutional clients will be able to use SEN's real-time rails to move dollars and manage liquidity across both networks at any hour. SoFi's Big Business Banking service also becomes available to Kraken Prime's institutional and business users, providing a nationally chartered banking counterparty capable of real-time fiat settlement.
"The financial system should not shut down when markets stay open," said Anthony Noto, chief executive of SoFi, in the announcement. He described the partnership as a validation of the company's strategy of combining a nationally chartered bank with technology allowing money to move across networks and, over time, across borders without the delays and fragmentation of legacy infrastructure. David Ripley, co-chief executive of Payward, said money and markets were converging into a new financial paradigm and that the infrastructure underneath had to catch up, adding that millions of people would buy their first cryptoasset inside the application they already use for their paycheck.
STABLECOIN DISTRIBUTION AND EXECUTION
Running in the opposite direction, Kraken Prime, Payward's full-service prime brokerage arm, will serve as an additional source of liquidity behind SoFi's in-application crypto offering, which the company said will enable improved pricing for members on trades they already execute through the platform. Kraken Prime sources prices across multiple venues rather than a single order book. Payward will simultaneously list SoFiUSD on Kraken, expanding distribution of the stablecoin to the exchange's retail, professional and institutional client base. SoFiUSD is redeemable one-to-one for US dollars and is issued directly by SoFi Bank, placing it among the small number of dollar tokens backed by a nationally chartered US bank rather than a trust company or offshore issuer.
The transaction reflects a convergence in which exchanges are expanding beyond token trading into equities, derivatives and payments, while banks and fintechs add stablecoins and blockchain-based settlement from the other direction. Both companies said the relationship could extend over time across payments, treasury, lending and additional digital asset services, though no timeline was provided for those phases. Payward separately agreed this week with the London Stock Exchange to bring shares of 100 of the largest London-listed companies onto its xStocks tokenisation framework, subject to regulatory approval. Execution risk for the SoFi arrangement will centre on the pace at which qualified custody capabilities are introduced and whether SEN's settlement volumes materially expand beyond SoFi's existing enterprise base.