Wells Fargo in talks with Kraken parent Payward for crypto liquidity

Payward, the parent of crypto exchange Kraken, is in talks to become a crypto liquidity provider to Wells Fargo, CoinDesk reported, citing two people with direct knowledge of the matter. The talks are ongoing and may not result in a deal. Both companies declined to comment.

Under the potential arrangement, Wyoming-based Payward would supply liquidity for trading in crypto assets, according to the people, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the matter is private. Kraken sells banks technology to integrate crypto trading into their own platforms, letting lenders serve clients without building the infrastructure themselves.

Wells Fargo served as Nasdaq's exclusive capital markets adviser on Nasdaq's September agreement to invest $100 million in Payward, CoinDesk reported. That agreement covers deeper collaboration on tokenized equities and market surveillance, giving the bank a working relationship with the firm it is negotiating to buy liquidity from.

Wells Fargo already offers spot bitcoin ETFs to eligible wealth clients, has backed compliance firm Elliptic and trading technology provider Talos, announced plans for blockchain-based deposits, and joined a consortium developing a dollar stablecoin, per CoinDesk. Earlier this year it hired former Citi banker Mark Gracia to strengthen its digital assets team.

Payward is separately in talks with BNY over a broad financial-infrastructure partnership that could cover crypto products and custody, CoinDesk reported last week. CoinDesk attributes banks' growing willingness to work with crypto firms to a friendlier U.S. regulatory environment under the Trump administration, and notes that the GENIUS Act, signed in July 2025, set a federal framework for payment stablecoins. Anchorage Digital CEO Nathan McCauley told the Senate Banking Committee in February 2025 that more than 40 banks had rejected the firm's requests for accounts even though a subsidiary held a federal bank charter.

Payward has spent the year building institutional-facing infrastructure, including a permissioned route for U.S. institutions onto a public chain, and the regulatory backdrop shapes timing rather than the direction of the Wall Street crypto buildout. A liquidity arrangement with Wells Fargo would give the bank an execution supplier; it would not by itself add a product advisers can sell.