KRAKEN PARENT PAYWARD AGREES TO ACQUIRE BITNOMIAL FOR UP TO $550 MILLION, SECURING FIRST FULL US CFTC-LICENSED CRYPTO DERIVATIVES STACK Payward, the parent company of crypto exchange Kraken, agreed Thursday to acquire Chicago-based Bitnomial for up to $550 million in cash and stock. The transaction values Payward at $20 billion and is expected to close in the first half of 2026, subject to regulatory approvals from the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. Bitnomial is the first crypto-native platform in the United States to hold all three licenses required to operate a full-stack domestic derivatives business: a designated contract market, a derivatives clearing organization, and a futures commission merchant license. The acquisition gives Kraken vertically integrated, onshore infrastructure covering exchange, clearing, and brokerage functions under CFTC oversight. Payward Co-CEO Arjun Sethi said the deal enables CFTC-regulated spot margin, perpetual futures, and options to launch across the Kraken platform. The company will also integrate Bitnomial’s infrastructure into NinjaTrader, its $1.5 billion retail futures acquisition from 2025, and Payward Services, its institutional B2B platform. Bitnomial founder Luke Hoersten built the stack from the ground up for crypto markets over more than a decade, with features including physically settled Bitcoin options, crypto-as-margin collateral, and a unified trading book across spot, futures, and options. The deal follows Deutsche Börse’s $200 million investment for a 1.5% stake in Payward, a transaction that values Kraken at approximately $13.3 billion on a per-share basis versus the $20 billion equity valuation implied by the Bitnomial deal terms. Building Bitnomial’s three-license regulatory stack independently would have required years of repeated CFTC engagement. By acquiring it outright, Payward accelerates its push into regulated US derivatives at a moment when institutional demand for compliant crypto futures and options infrastructure is expanding. The CLARITY Act, targeted for Senate markup in late April, would further clarify the CFTC’s jurisdiction over crypto commodity assets and could expand the addressable market for Bitnomial’s infrastructure.