Payward joins SoFi's settlement network as Kraken lists the SoFiUSD stablecoin

Kraken’s owner Payward will connect to SoFi’s real-time settlement rails and carry SoFi’s bank-issued stablecoin on its exchange.

The partnership, announced Thursday, lets institutional clients on either platform move dollars at any hour.

Payward joins SoFi’s 24/7 rail

Payward, the infrastructure company behind the Kraken exchange, is joining the SoFi Exchange Network, the always-on settlement rail launched in April.

SoFi is using Payward’s prime brokerage, Kraken Prime, to route crypto trades from its app to access deep liquidity.

Kraken will list SoFiUSD, a stablecoin redeemable one-to-one for U.S. dollars, and make it available to the platform’s retail, professional, and institutional users. SoFi and Payward issued a joint statement on September 3.

The deal lets institutional traders use a settlement service that was only available to SoFi’s business banking clients before.

Kraken customers have the option to settle and hold dollars on both networks at any time.

SoFi’s crypto revenue reached $134.3 million in Q2

Legacy bank rails go dark on nights and weekends, but crypto continues to trade.

“The financial system should not shut down when markets stay open,” SoFi CEO Anthony Noto said in the announcement.

Payward Co-CEO David Ripley said, “Money and markets are converging into a new financial paradigm.”

Kraken Prime is powering the buy and sell buttons in the SoFi app, and SoFi says that supplemental liquidity should make pricing sharper on trades members are already doing.

SoFi’s crypto transaction revenue in the second quarter was $134.3 million, up 10% sequentially, on $1.2 billion of adjusted net revenue overall.

SoFiUSD is part of Big Business Banking, a one-stop fiat-and-crypto service the firm launched in April, beginning on Solana with plans to expand to other chains, Cryptopolitan reported.

In March, Payward’s Wyoming-chartered affiliate, Kraken Financial, won a Federal Reserve master account, giving it straightforward access to the central bank’s payment system without a partner bank in between.

In May, the firm filed an application with the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) for a national trust charter under the name Payward National Trust Company.

SoFi Technologies Inc. (NASDAQ: SOFI) recently closed Thursday at $18.51, up +3.76% on strong volume, according to Google Finance.

If you're reading this, you’re already ahead. Stay there with our newsletter.