SoFi Technologies and Payward, the parent company of crypto exchange Kraken, announced on September 3 a three-part partnership that connects SoFi's chartered-bank settlement infrastructure to Kraken's digital asset trading and prime brokerage platform. The deal gives Kraken's institutional client...
"The financial system should not shut down when markets stay open." — Anthony Noto, CEO, SoFi Technologies
SoFi Technologies and Payward, the parent company of crypto exchange Kraken, announced on September 3 a three-part partnership that connects SoFi's chartered-bank settlement infrastructure to Kraken's digital asset trading and prime brokerage platform. The deal gives Kraken's institutional clients access to 24/7 USD clearing through SoFi's real-time settlement network, lists SoFi's bank-issued stablecoin SoFiUSD on Kraken, and routes SoFi's retail crypto order flow through Kraken Prime.
The arrangement reconstructs a category of financial plumbing that went offline in March 2023 when Silvergate Bank and Signature Bank — operators of the Silvergate Exchange Network (SEN) and Signet, respectively — collapsed within days of each other. Those two networks had jointly processed over $300 billion in quarterly crypto-to-fiat settlement volume at their peak. No single replacement emerged for more than three years. The SoFi-Payward deal fills that gap with a chartered, FDIC-insured bank on one side and a regulated exchange on the other, connecting 15.8 million SoFi members and Kraken's multi-million-user base to a shared settlement layer.
The partnership has three interlocking components:
1. Settlement Network Access. Payward joins the SoFi Exchange Network, SoFi's 24/7 real-time settlement rail. Kraken's institutional and business clients can clear and settle U.S. dollar transactions at any hour, including weekends and holidays, rather than queuing for next-business-day processing through conventional ACH or wire transfer windows. SoFi Bank, N.A. — an OCC-regulated, FDIC-insured institution — serves as the banking counterparty.
2. SoFiUSD Listing. Kraken will list SoFiUSD, SoFi's fully reserved dollar stablecoin, on its exchange. The token is redeemable 1:1 for U.S. dollars and runs on Ethereum and Solana. Reserves consist of 85% short-term U.S. Treasury bills and 15% cash held at FDIC-insured institutions, verified monthly through SOC 2 Type II attestations by Deloitte.
3. Retail Order Routing. SoFi will route its retail crypto order flow — generated by its 15.8 million members — through Kraken Prime, Payward's institutional prime brokerage service. This gives SoFi access to Kraken's multi-venue liquidity via smart order routing, while providing Kraken Prime with a substantial new flow of retail volume.
Neither company disclosed financial terms.
The collapse of Silvergate Bank (voluntary liquidation, March 8, 2023) and Signature Bank (FDIC seizure, March 12, 2023) removed the two primary 24/7 USD settlement networks serving the crypto industry. At their operational peak in Q2 2021, the Silvergate Exchange Network processed roughly $240 billion in quarterly transfers across 1,300-plus clients. Signature's Signet handled $149 billion in the same quarter with 812 clients.
Their simultaneous disappearance forced institutional crypto participants into a patchwork of workarounds: standard wire transfers with banking-hours-only availability, reliance on Tether and USDC as settlement proxies, and in some cases offshore banking arrangements with higher counterparty risk and slower clearing. According to industry estimates, over 55% of institutional crypto clients now prefer stablecoin-based settlement — a behavioral shift driven partly by necessity during the three-year gap.
No single entity replicated what SEN and Signet provided until SoFi began processing live settlements through its own network in Q2 2026, as disclosed on SoFi's July earnings call. The Payward partnership extends that infrastructure to one of the largest crypto-native exchanges globally.
SoFiUSD launched on December 18, 2025, and SoFi claims it is the first stablecoin issued by a U.S. nationally chartered, FDIC-insured bank on a public, permissionless blockchain. Key parameters:
| Attribute | Detail | |---|---| | Issuer | SoFi Bank, N.A. (OCC-chartered) | | Chains | Ethereum, Solana | | Reserve Composition | 85% short-term U.S. Treasuries, 15% cash at FDIC-insured institutions | | Audit Cadence | Monthly SOC 2 Type II attestations by Deloitte | | Yield | 4.2% (as of latest reporting) | | Consumer Access | Available to SoFi's 14.7 million members via the banking app | | Regulatory Classification | Stablecoin issued by a regulated depository institution |
In March 2026, SoFi and Mastercard announced a partnership to enable SoFiUSD as a settlement option across Mastercard's global payments network, including support on the Mastercard Multi-Token Network. SoFi's technology subsidiary Galileo will offer issuing banks the choice to settle card transactions using SoFiUSD.
The stablecoin sits within a $301.7 billion total stablecoin market as of September 3, 2026, according to aggregated data. USDT commands $183.3 billion (60.4%) and USDC holds $73.6 billion (24.4%). SoFiUSD's market share is marginal by comparison, but its distribution advantages — embedded in a 15.8-million-member banking app and now listed on a major exchange — distinguish it from most sub-scale stablecoin entrants.
Kraken Prime, launched in 2025, provides institutional clients with consolidated access to trading, custody, and financing. The platform uses smart order routing that compares prices and depth across venues in real time, directing each order to the venue with the best expected fill quality.
According to publicly available data, Kraken processes approximately $2 billion in 24-hour trading volume. The exchange recorded $660 billion in total crypto volume in 2024, more than double the prior year. User figures vary by reporting method, but the exchange has disclosed over 13 million registered users and 4.4 million funded accounts.
By routing SoFi's retail order flow through Kraken Prime, the partnership creates a two-directional value exchange: SoFi members gain access to Kraken's deeper liquidity pools and broader asset selection, while Kraken absorbs a flow of retail volume from a source with banking-grade compliance and KYC infrastructure already in place.
Payward has also been expanding Kraken Prime's capabilities in parallel. In June 2026, the company announced xStocks, a tokenized IPO access framework that gives retail investors the ability to participate in U.S.-listed IPOs at offering prices. Kraken is authorized by VARA in Dubai, covering spot, margin, OTC, staking, and institutional access.
The SoFi-Payward deal enters a settlement infrastructure market that has attracted multiple entrants since the SEN/Signet vacuum formed:
JPMorgan's Kinexys (formerly Onyx): Processes an estimated $2 billion in daily transactions through its tokenized deposit system. Operates as an intrabank settlement layer primarily serving JPMorgan's own institutional clients, not the broader crypto exchange ecosystem.
Visa Stablecoin Settlement: Announced an annualized run rate of $7 billion in stablecoin settlement volume as of April 2026, up 50% quarter-over-quarter. Operates through card network rails rather than bank-to-exchange direct settlement.
BankChain Alliance: Announced in August 2026, gives 3,283 U.S. community banks an ownership stake in a shared digital payment rail. Targets smaller institutions rather than crypto-native platforms.
BNY Mellon: Disclosed plans to enable 24/7 settlement of traditional financial assets, including U.S. Treasuries, with tokenized products expected by end of 2026.
The SoFi-Payward structure differs from these competitors in one respect: it is the only arrangement pairing an FDIC-insured bank directly with a major crypto-native exchange for round-the-clock dollar settlement. JPMorgan's Kinexys is closed-loop. Visa's system runs through card rails. BankChain targets community banks. The closest historical analog remains the now-defunct SEN and Signet networks.
The partnership's economic model distributes value across several participants:
SoFi captures settlement fees from 24/7 clearing services, stablecoin issuance revenue (the spread between the 4.2% yield paid to SoFiUSD holders and the Treasury bill returns on reserves), and potential payment-for-order-flow economics from routing retail crypto trades through Kraken Prime. SoFi reported Q2 2026 adjusted net revenue of $1.2 billion, up 40% year-over-year, and raised full-year revenue guidance to $4.75–$4.85 billion.
Payward/Kraken gains retail order flow from SoFi's 15.8 million members, listing fee revenue from SoFiUSD, and a deeper institutional client base through SoFi Exchange Network access. The exchange benefits from flow diversification — a banking-sourced retail channel with different user demographics than crypto-native retail.
Institutional clients receive 24/7 settlement without the counterparty risk of offshore banking or the friction of stablecoin-only settlement. According to industry surveys, institutional desks provide same-day or near-instant settlement in over 85% of trades in 2026.
End users (SoFi members) gain access to broader crypto liquidity through Kraken Prime's multi-venue routing, potentially improving execution quality on trades placed through SoFi's app.
Treasury/Deloitte earn audit and attestation fees from SoFiUSD's monthly SOC 2 Type II verification cycle.
The revenue split between SoFi and Payward on order routing was not disclosed. Industry-standard payment-for-order-flow arrangements in equities typically range from $0.002 to $0.004 per share; crypto equivalents remain opaque.
The SoFi-Payward partnership is a plumbing upgrade. It reconnects two systems — regulated banking and crypto exchange infrastructure — that were severed when the 2023 banking crisis took Silvergate and Signature offline simultaneously. The commercial logic is straightforward: SoFi has a bank charter, 15.8 million members, and a stablecoin; Kraken has liquidity, institutional clients, and a prime brokerage. Neither alone solves the 24/7 settlement problem. Together, they reconstruct a capability that the industry has lacked for more than three years.
Whether this arrangement achieves the scale of the old SEN and Signet networks — which jointly processed hundreds of billions per quarter — depends on institutional adoption velocity and competitive response from larger banks. The infrastructure now exists. Utilization is the remaining variable.