Payward has completed its acquisition of Bitnomial, opening a regulated route for crypto derivatives in the U.S. and giving Kraken the licenses it needed to move faster.
Summary
A full CFTC stack
The deal gives Payward a complete set of Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) approvals for a derivatives business. That includes a Futures Commission Merchant, a Designated Contract Market, and a Derivatives Clearing Organization.
Moreover, those licenses cover trading, clearing, and brokerage under one framework. Kraken said the first phase of the rollout will begin with spot margin trading, followed by perpetual contracts and options.
Bitnomial, based in Chicago, spent more than a decade securing the three CFTC approvals needed for a full derivatives operation. Payward said no other crypto-native U.S. firm held that combination at the same time.
What the acquisition changes
With the transaction closed, Bitnomial will operate inside Payward while keeping its regulatory setup and third-party services. The company also plans to expand the exchange team as integration continues.
However, the strategic value goes beyond the exchange itself. Payward said the merger will connect Bitnomial’s infrastructure across Kraken, NinjaTrader, and its business-to-business platform.
That setup should let banks, brokerages, and payment firms access regulated U.S. crypto derivatives through a single API. In practical terms, the company wants to create a broader crypto derivatives exchange network under one regulatory umbrella.
When the deal was first announced, it was valued at up to $550 million in cash and stock, though final terms were not disclosed at closing. Payward also reported $2.2 billion in revenue in 2025, about $2 trillion in transaction volume, and more than $48 billion in customer assets at year-end.
Broader expansion plans
Moreover, Payward said it already runs regulated derivatives businesses in the UK and expanded into EU-regulated offerings in 2025. The Bitnomial purchase fits into a wider plan to enter the U.S. market with a fully licensed structure.
The move follows a separate $200 million investment from Deutsche Börse Group earlier this month. Payward also confirmed that it filed a draft S-1 with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission in November while weighing a potential public listing.
In short, the acquisition gives Payward the regulatory base to scale U.S. derivatives, while Kraken prepares its next product phase around a fully licensed framework.
