Kraken parent Payward and SGB launch 24/7 settlement for institutions

What happened

Payward, the parent company of Kraken, has plugged into SGB Net, the clearing network run by Singapore Gulf Bank. The two firms said on Oct. 5 that institutional clients of both can now settle qualifying transactions at any hour of the day.

The opening phase covers U.S. dollar transfers and a limited group of institutional customers in supported jurisdictions. Both companies said more currencies and clients should follow, but they did not give a timetable for that next stage.

As part of the same arrangement, Singapore Gulf Bank is taking on Kraken Prime, Payward's prime brokerage for institutions, as another source of digital asset liquidity. The bank expects to use Payward's markets to price trades for its own customers over the coming months.

Why it matters

Crypto markets run nonstop, while bank settlement stops at the end of the business day. Mark Greenberg, Payward's chief commercial officer, said digital-asset firms often face a mismatch between continuous trading and banking cut-off times. The new link is meant to narrow that gap for clients that qualify.

SGB Net moves more than $20 billion in fiat each month, according to Singapore Gulf Bank. The companies supplied that figure, and it was not independently audited in the material reviewed for this report.

The tie-up follows a similar structure Payward used with SoFi, where qualified institutional clients gained round-the-clock U.S. dollar transfers and SoFi added Kraken Prime as a liquidity source. The SGB agreement carries the same approach into chosen markets in Asia and the Gulf through a different regulated bank network.

Background

Singapore Gulf Bank opened SGB Net in May 2025 as a real-time, multi-currency clearing network. The bank is licensed as a conventional wholesale bank by Bahrain's central bank regulator and is backed by Bahrain sovereign wealth fund Mumtalakat.

Volume has grown quickly by the companies' own account. A February 2026 SGB update cited more than $2 billion in monthly fiat transaction volume.

Payward has been adding regulated banking rails to its institutional business ahead of a long-discussed public listing. CoinGape reported that Nasdaq is investing in Payward, and that BNY and Payward are in private talks about a broad partnership covering custody, wealth management, trading and payments.

What is still unclear

• Neither company gave a timetable for adding more currencies or clients to the service.
• The $20 billion monthly fiat figure came from the companies and was not independently audited.
• Terms of the private talks between BNY and Payward were not disclosed in the reports.

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