Deutsche Borse Bets $200M on Kraken: TradFi Giants Race Into Crypto

Deutsche Borse, operator of the Frankfurt Stock Exchange, announced Tuesday a $200 million investment in Payward - the parent company of crypto exchange Kraken. The deal gives Deutsche Borse a 1.5% fully diluted stake through a secondary share purchase. At that price, the implied valuation for Kraken comes out to roughly $13.3 billion. Regulatory approval is pending, with closing expected in Q2 2026.

An existing partnership gets a price tag

The two companies have been working together since December 4, 2025, when they announced a strategic partnership focused on institutional access to regulated crypto products. Deutsche Borse's digital asset platform 360X already runs xStocks - tokenized equities built on Kraken's infrastructure.

The $200 million puts a financial commitment behind that strategy. Together, they plan to expand into trading, custody, settlement, collateral management, and tokenized asset products through 360X.

What Deutsche Borse is actually buying

But the equity stake is only part of the story. Deutsche Borse wants to become a bridge between traditional markets and the crypto sector. Kraken gives it access to infrastructure that serves millions of users across dozens of markets - the kind that takes years to build from scratch.

Target products include spot trading of Bitcoin and Ethereum, crypto derivatives, and tokenized markets - all aimed at institutional clients already using Deutsche Borse's existing infrastructure.

Kraken's IPO math doesn't add up

In November 2025, Kraken filed a confidential draft registration with the SEC for an IPO. A fundraising round at that time valued the company at $20 billion. But $200 million for 1.5% fully diluted puts the current implied valuation at roughly $13.3 billion - a gap of nearly $7 billion.

The difference comes down to deal mechanics: fully diluted capital includes all outstanding options and warrants, which lowers the per-share price. Secondary market transactions also tend to price at a discount to primary rounds. Kraken did not respond to requests for comment.

TradFi is done watching from the sidelines

Deutsche Borse is not the only major exchange operator moving on Kraken. In March 2026, Nasdaq struck a deal with Kraken and its subsidiary Backed to build a tokenized equities gateway. Large financial market operators no longer want to track crypto from the outside - they want to be inside it.

BlackRock, Fidelity, and Goldman Sachs have all launched crypto ETFs or built crypto divisions. Deutsche Borse is taking the more direct route: an equity stake in one of the top exchanges.

What happens next

Once the deal closes, Deutsche Borse will be a minority shareholder in Kraken. At 1.5%, it won't drive major decisions. The real value lies in co-developed products and shared infrastructure set to roll out over the coming quarters.

Kraken's IPO timeline remains unclear. If the implied valuation has dropped from $20 billion to $13.3 billion, a public listing may wait for better market conditions - or this deal is Deutsche Borse locking in a discounted entry before the IPO opens to the public.