Kraken Parent Payward Completes Bitnomial Acquisition

• Payward has completed its acquisition of Bitnomial, adding key U.S. derivatives licenses to the Kraken parent company.
• The deal gives Payward the regulatory stack to offer CFTC-regulated spot margin, perpetuals and options to eligible U.S. clients.

Payward, the parent company of Kraken, has closed its acquisition of Bitnomial, giving the group a broader path into regulated U.S. crypto derivatives.

Bitnomial gives Payward a full derivatives stack

With the transaction completed, Payward now holds three important U.S. derivatives licenses: Futures Commission Merchant, Designated Contract Market and Derivatives Clearing Organization. Together, those licenses allow the company to support trading, intermediation and clearing within the Commodity Futures Trading Commission’s framework.

Payward said the structure will enable it to bring CFTC-regulated spot margin, perpetuals and options to eligible U.S. clients across Kraken and NinjaTrader.

Arjun Sethi, co-CEO of Payward and Kraken, said the rollout will begin with spot margin services on Kraken. Perpetuals and options are expected to follow later. That sequencing matters. Margin is the first bridge. Perpetuals and options are the larger prize, especially in a U.S. market where offshore platforms have long dominated crypto derivatives activity.

U.S. crypto derivatives move onshore

Bitnomial is based in Chicago and operates as a crypto-native derivatives exchange. It has often moved early on new listed products, including Aptos futures.

For Kraken, the acquisition is less about adding another venue and more about owning the regulated plumbing. In U.S. derivatives markets, execution alone is not enough. Clearing, market designation and customer intermediation all sit inside a tightly supervised structure.

The deal also fits a broader industry shift. Large crypto exchanges are trying to bring products that once lived mostly offshore into regulated domestic channels. That does not make the products simple. Leverage, liquidation risk and market surveillance remain central issues.