Payward, Parent company of Kraken, has acquired Reap in a $600 million deal to expand its stablecoin payments and crypto card infrastructure.
Author: Arushi Garg
High attention and emotional sentiment detected.
7th May 2026 – Payward Inc, Parent company of Kraken is acquiring Hong Kong-based Reap Technologies for $600 million. The all-cash-and-stock deal was first reported by Bloomberg.
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charmer
@charmerrrrrr
@krakenfx @Payward @reapglobal @PaywardServices What’s happening with kraken? Bitcoin Withdrawal has been pending for over 30hrs.
Kraken parent @Payward is acquiring Reap, a payments infrastructure company connecting card networks, traditional finance rails, and stablecoin-native settlement into a single platform. @reapglobal expands @PaywardServices with globally regulated card issuance and stablecoin https://t.co/A3mf9p8thY
02:06 PM·May 7, 2026
Raj
@CryptoMemeRaj
@krakenfx @Payward @reapglobal @PaywardServices kraken really buying up every damn payments company huh guess that's one way to fix my coinstats
Kraken parent @Payward is acquiring Reap, a payments infrastructure company connecting card networks, traditional finance rails, and stablecoin-native settlement into a single platform. @reapglobal expands @PaywardServices with globally regulated card issuance and stablecoin https://t.co/A3mf9p8thY
01:31 PM·May 7, 2026
Drive
@Drive_grind
@krakenfx @Payward @reapglobal @PaywardServices kraken snapping up reap? stablecoins + cards sounds solid
Kraken parent @Payward is acquiring Reap, a payments infrastructure company connecting card networks, traditional finance rails, and stablecoin-native settlement into a single platform. @reapglobal expands @PaywardServices with globally regulated card issuance and stablecoin https://t.co/A3mf9p8thY
01:25 PM·May 7, 2026
The deal, announced on Wednesday, values Payward’s equity at $20 billion. As a result, it marks the company’s first major Asia-focused infrastructure acquisition.
Payward/Kraken co-CEO Arjun Sethi confirmed the terms to Bloomberg. The transaction should close in the second half of 2026, pending regulatory approvals.
Reap operates a unified payments infrastructure platform. Specifically, it connects card networks, banking rails, and stablecoin-native settlement into a single API layer.
Core products include corporate Visa cards backed by stablecoins like USDC and payment APIs for cross-border payouts. In addition, its Reap Direct product handles treasury management with on-chain funding.
In practical terms, Reap lets businesses spend stablecoin treasury directly via Visa cards. Because of this, recipients get fiat without the sender needing a traditional off-ramp.
Reap holds a Major Payment Institution license from Singapore’s MAS (granted October 2025). It also holds licenses in Hong Kong and Mexico and operates as a Visa Principal Issuer.
Daren Guo (ex-Stripe APAC) and Kevin Kang founded Reap in 2018 in Hong Kong. Today, the company employs over 200 people across multiple offices.
Reap raised $40 million in a Series A round in October 2022. Acorn Pacific Ventures, Arcadia Funds, and HashKey Capital led that round. In total, funding reached approximately $60 million before this deal.
In their official statement on X, the founders wrote: “We started Reap in 2018 with a conviction: stablecoins will be core infrastructure for global payments.” They added that the Payward ecosystem will help them “move faster toward a more open, continuous global financial system.”
Timeline: Kraken and Payward’s aggressive expansion across futures, tokenized assets, payments, and infrastructure
Payward announces a $1.5 billion all-cash agreement to acquire NinjaTrader, marking the largest TradFi-crypto acquisition at the time.
The acquisition officially completes, integrating retail futures trading into Kraken’s broader product suite.
Payward acquires Backed Finance AG to strengthen its tokenized equities and on-chain asset issuance strategy.
Payward acquires Magna, expanding its token management and digital asset lifecycle infrastructure.
The company unveils its B2B infrastructure layer offering APIs for trading, staking, lending, stablecoin payments, and fiat rails.
Payward agrees to acquire Bitnomial, the first fully CFTC-licensed crypto-native derivatives platform, in a deal worth up to $550 million.
The Bitnomial acquisition is finalized, strengthening Kraken’s regulated derivatives capabilities.
Payward announces a $600 million acquisition of Reap Technologies, expanding stablecoin-native payments and card issuance infrastructure.
This acquisition fits a pattern of aggressive deal-making. Payward acquired NinjaTrader for $1.5 billion in March 2025. At the time, that was the largest TradFi-to-crypto acquisition.
Then in April 2026, Payward announced the Bitnomial acquisition for up to $550 million. That deal closed in early May 2026.
Payward also acquired Backed Finance for tokenized equities. Combined with Reap, Payward has now spent over $2.65 billion on M&A in about 14 months.
Payward Services ties these pieces together. Launched around March 2026, it offers unified APIs for trading, staking, lending, and now payments through Reap.
Reap’s infrastructure serves as a bridge between stablecoin treasuries and the Visa network. When a card is swiped, the system holds equivalent stablecoin collateral instantly.
It then settles via traditional rails to the merchant in fiat. Meanwhile, it debits the on-chain stablecoin balance. This enables settlement that runs continuously without pre-funding fiat accounts.
Because Reap can issue compliant Visa cards in multiple jurisdictions, Payward Services now offers this to enterprise clients. As a result, businesses using Kraken’s infrastructure gain direct access to regulated card issuance.
How Kraken’s Reap acquisition transforms it from a consumer card player into a full-stack payments infrastructure provider
Through this deal, Kraken acquires Reap’s regulated foothold in Hong Kong, Singapore, and Mexico. These are among the fastest-growing crypto markets worldwide.
Competing exchanges are also building payments products. For instance, Coinbase offers the Coinbase Card, and Binance operates Binance Pay.
The key difference is Reap’s B2B focus. Instead of consumer cards, Reap targets businesses that hold stablecoin treasury and need compliant cross-border payment rails.
Several details remain unclear. Neither company has specified the exact close timeline beyond H2 2026. Payward also has not disclosed the integration roadmap for Kraken retail and institutional users.
No on-chain treasury movements or contract deployments tied to the deal have surfaced yet. Reap’s stablecoin settlement runs through its licensed rails rather than new on-chain contracts.
Neither side has shared employee retention terms or earn-out structures. Similarly, the full list of supported stablecoins beyond USDC and card networks beyond Visa remain unconfirmed.
Payward now controls a full stack spanning exchange trading, derivatives, tokenized equities, and stablecoin payments. The fact that Kraken acquires Reap signals a clear shift toward B2B payment infrastructure as a growth pillar.
Market reaction on X has been uniformly positive. Multiple accounts called the deal “bullish” for stablecoin adoption. Some see it as proof that crypto exchanges are building full-stack financial services.
The deal still needs regulatory sign-off before closing. Consequently, investors and Kraken users will watch for integration details in the months ahead.
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