Kraken parent Payward buys stablecoin payments firm Reap for $600M
What's the deal? Payward, the parent company of crypto exchange Kraken, has agreed to acquire Reap Technologies, a Hong Kong-based stablecoin-focused payments infrastructure company, for $600M in a mix of cash and stock. Payward is issuing stock at a $20B valuation. The deal is expected to close in H2 2026.
Reap provides cross-border payment infrastructure for businesses across Asia, enabling companies to issue corporate cards, manage multi-currency accounts, and settle transactions using stablecoins. It operates across more than 40 markets and serves clients including fintechs, neobanks, and enterprise businesses.
Founded by Daren GuoDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom → and Kevin KangDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →, Reap has positioned itself as the payments layer connecting traditional financial infrastructure with stablecoin settlement rails — a model that has gained significant commercial traction as stablecoin transaction volumes have grown to rival those of major card networks.
Why now? Kraken has been aggressively expanding beyond its core retail crypto trading business. In January 2026, it acquired NinjaTraderDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →, a US futures trading platform, for $1.5B. The Reap acquisition extends that strategy into B2B payments infrastructure — a faster-growing and more defensible category than retail trading.
Asia represents a critical geography for stablecoin-based payments, where dollar-denominated settlement offers a practical alternative to slow and expensive correspondent banking for cross-border business transactions.
Stablecoin transaction volumes globally reached double-digit trillions in 2025, approaching the combined volumes of VisaDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom → and MastercardDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →. Payward is betting that owning the payments infrastructure layer — rather than just the exchange — positions it for the next phase of crypto's commercial expansion.
What could go wrong? Payments infrastructure in Asia is a heavily regulated and intensely competitive space. Reap operates across more than 40 markets, each with its own licensing requirements, currency controls, and compliance obligations. Integrating that patchwork of regulatory relationships into Kraken's existing compliance framework is operationally complex and could slow the deal's benefits from being realised.
The $600M price tag also represents a significant bet on stablecoin payments remaining central to business transactions — a thesis that depends on continued regulatory tolerance for stablecoin-based settlement in key Asian markets, which is not guaranteed.
The signal: The acquisition reflects a broader maturation of the crypto industry's commercial ambitions. The largest crypto companies are no longer content to be trading venues — they are building the infrastructure layers that financial services companies will use to move money globally. Payward's two major acquisitions in 2026 — futures trading and stablecoin payments — suggest a deliberate strategy to become a full-stack financial infrastructure company, with crypto rails at the centre.
Reap's co-founders framed the deal in similar terms, describing it as an opportunity to build the global payments infrastructure that businesses and financial institutions will rely on in a stablecoin-native financial system.
Sources:
Reap
Bloomberg
Business Wire
CoinDesk
Crypto Briefing
Image credit:
Reap
J.V.
