Kraken’s parent company Payward has announced a partnership with SoFi aimed at linking SoFi’s dollar settlement infrastructure with Kraken’s institutional trading and liquidity capabilities. The deal will bring SoFiUSD—SoFi’s dollar-backed stablecoin—onto Kraken, while connecting Kraken to SoFi’s 24/7 US dollar settlement network.
Under the collaboration, SoFi will route its digital-asset trading activity through Kraken Prime, using the exchange platform’s smart order routing technology to seek the best available fills across supported venues. Payward, meanwhile, will join the SoFi Exchange Network (SEN) and gain access to SoFi’s business banking services, with the companies saying qualified custody services could be added as the partnership expands.
Key takeaways
- SoFiUSD, issued by SoFi Bank and backed by cash and short-term US Treasurys, will be supported on Kraken.
- SoFi will use Kraken Prime as an additional liquidity source for digital-asset orders, routed via smart order routing.
- Payward will join the SoFi Exchange Network for round-the-clock US dollar settlement for institutional and business clients.
- The partnership extends Kraken/Payward’s broader strategy of deeper ties with traditional financial rails and tokenized market access.
How SoFiUSD and Kraken Prime are expected to connect
SoFiUSD is designed for payments and settlement, with reserves held in cash and short-term US Treasurys. According to a Thursday blog post from Kraken, the partnership will route SoFi’s digital asset orders through Kraken Prime, a venue designed to evaluate pricing and market depth across multiple trading venues in real time and direct orders to where they can be filled most effectively.
That distinction matters for institutions and app-based providers. Rather than relying on a single order book, smart order routing can help a liquidity provider or trading app access fragmented liquidity that may be available elsewhere in the market. Kraken said that enabling routing through Kraken Prime gives SoFi access to liquidity across multiple trading venues.
24/7 dollar settlement through SEN
In the second half of the arrangement, Payward will connect to SEN, SoFi’s exchange network that supports continuous US dollar settlement. Kraken said SEN access will extend to its institutional and business customers, positioning the settlement layer as a key part of the product experience on both sides.
The companies also indicated that custody capabilities could be added later, depending on how the partnership evolves. For market participants, custody and settlement are frequently the two “make or break” components when moving from experimentation to scaled deployment—especially when a platform is trying to support frequent, automated flows.
Payward’s broader push into traditional finance
The SoFi announcement fits within a wider pattern of Payward and Kraken moving beyond the core crypto trading stack and into partnerships with legacy-market infrastructure.
Earlier this week, London Stock Exchange Group reportedly partnered with Payward to offer tokenized versions of leading UK equities through LSE 24, a new trading venue set to launch in 2027 (coverage of the reported partnership was noted earlier by Cointelegraph). In August, Kraken also expanded its funded trading offerings with exposure to the S&P 500, and said commodities were expected to follow in that program.
Kraken has additionally expanded into tokenized public markets through xStocks, a tokenized equities platform developed by Backed Finance, which Kraken acquired in early 2026. Using that platform, Kraken has offered eligible users access to shares tied to SpaceX and Jersey Mike’s IPOs through tokenized equities, and in some cases via direct share allocations.
These moves are notable because they shift Kraken/Payward’s narrative from “just” an exchange and custody operator into a bridge between crypto trading infrastructure and regulated market access workflows—an approach that can be attractive to institutions that want familiar settlement and distribution mechanisms.
Regulatory timing and the IPO backdrop
Payward’s traditional finance partnerships also come as the company prepares for a potential public listing. Reports indicate Payward’s IPO plans have been delayed multiple times.
According to Kraken, Payward confidentially submitted a draft registration statement to the US Securities and Exchange Commission in November 2025. However, reporting cited in the source indicates that the earliest timing for a listing has been pushed to the second quarter of 2027.
While the SoFi partnership itself doesn’t change the reported IPO timetable, it underlines the kinds of business developments Payward may want to demonstrate as it prepares to be scrutinized by public markets—namely, scalable relationships with non-crypto counterparties and settlement mechanisms that resemble mainstream financial infrastructure.
Going forward, market participants will likely watch whether custody services are eventually added to the SoFi-Kraken integration and how quickly SoFiUSD support expands across Kraken products and settlement workflows. The practical question for traders and institutions is whether the combination of multi-venue routing (via Kraken Prime) and continuous dollar settlement (via SEN) improves execution quality and operational reliability at scale.
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