SoFi Technologies and Payward, the parent company of Kraken, announced a strategic partnership on September 3 that connects banking, payments and digital asset markets. Under the agreement, Kraken will list SoFiUSD, the bank-issued stablecoin from the nationally chartered bank, while SoFi routes its digital asset order flow through Kraken Prime for trade execution, according to the Kraken announcement.
How the Partnership Works
Payward is joining the SoFi Exchange Network’s real-time settlement rails, the announcement said. Kraken Prime’s institutional and business clients will also gain access to SoFi’s Big Business Banking and its SEN settlement network, giving them a regulated banking partner that settles fiat in real time, 24 hours a day. Qualified custody capabilities are expected to follow as the relationship grows.
SoFi counts 15.8 million members, and the app already lets users buy and sell crypto. By routing that order flow through Kraken Prime, those trades now reach a deeper pool of liquidity rather than filling against a single order book. SoFi operates as a nationally chartered bank, so the tie-up pairs a regulated banking franchise with Kraken’s institutional trading stack.
Kraken Prime’s Execution Model
Kraken Prime, launched in 2025, uses a smart order routing system that reads pricing and depth across supported venues in real time and sends each order to wherever it fills best. For SoFi, that translates into a multi-venue execution layer instead of a single exchange account, which Kraken said should surface as better pricing on trades without changing how the app itself works.
Part of a Broader Pattern
The SoFi deal extends a run of institutional relationships for Kraken, which has already partnered with Deutsche Borse on FX and derivatives infrastructure, Nasdaq on a tokenized equity gateway and Franklin Templeton on tokenized ETFs. Each tie-up, including the earlier Payward agreement with the London Stock Exchange, represents a different entry point into the same convergence, as digital asset infrastructure increasingly runs underneath products that look like traditional finance.
The partnership also builds on stablecoin expansion among established banks, including a group of 21 financial institutions that moved to launch a USD stablecoin enterprise. Whether routing SoFi’s retail flow through Kraken Prime meaningfully deepens institutional crypto activity remains to be seen, but it gives the bank a direct bridge to deeper digital asset liquidity.
