Crypto Market Update: Kraken Parent Payward Acquires Derivatives Exchange Bitnomial

Kraken deals US$550 Million Bitnomial buyout

Kraken’s parent company, Payward, has agreed to acquire Cheyenne-based derivatives exchange Bitnomial for up to US$550 million.

The cash-and-stock deal pins Payward’s overall equity valuation at an impressive US$20 billion.

The strategic purchase gives Kraken immediate access to Bitnomial’s decade-in-the-making infrastructure, which features natively built crypto settlement, collateral management, and continuous 24/7 trading markets. A

This acquisition is just the latest move in a highly aggressive growth spree for the exchange, which recently snapped up futures platform NinjaTrader for US$1.5 billion alongside several tokenization and proprietary trading firms.

The company is also in the process of maintaining its confidential IPO filing with the SEC ahead of an anticipated public listing.

Canary tests SEC Limits with PEPE ETF filing

Asset manager Canary Capital has formally submitted an S-1 registration statement to the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to launch a spot PEPE ETF.

If approved, the proposed fund would hold the popular frog-themed token directly, maintaining only a fractional Ethereum balance to cover associated network and transaction fees. The trust is designed to issue and redeem shares in 10,000-share baskets, accepting both cash and in-kind PEPE from authorized participants.

Sitting as the 45th largest digital asset with a market capitalization hovering around US$1.48 billion, PEPE boasts enough liquidity to justify an institutional wrapper in the eyes of Canary’s leadership.

Circle faces class action heat over US$285 million DeFi exploit

Stablecoin giant Circle is finding itself in the legal crosshairs after disgruntled Drift Protocol investors filed a class action lawsuit regarding a devastating US$285 million hack.

The controversy stems from an April 1 exploit on the Solana-based DeFi platform, during which attackers drained massive amounts of capital using weaponized administrative transfers.

The lawsuit specifically targets an eight-hour window where the hackers successfully bridged US$232 million in USDC from Solana to Ethereum via Circle’s Cross-Chain Transfer Protocol. Plaintiffs argue that Circle was negligent in failing to freeze the stolen funds while the cross-chain transfers were executing.

Circle has fiercely defended its position, with executives including CEO Jeremy Allaire arguing that unilaterally freezing assets without a formal law enforcement or court order creates a dangerous moral hazard.

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Securities Disclosure: I, Meagen Seatter, hold no direct investment interest in any company mentioned in this article.

Securities Disclosure: I, Giann Liguid, hold no direct investment interest in any company mentioned in this article.

The views and opinions expressed herein are the views and opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Nasdaq, Inc.