Kraken’s $600 million acquisition of Reap folds a Hong Kong stablecoin business‑payments specialist into its stack, with Payward issuing stock at a $20 billion valuation to anchor its IPO‑era M&A currency.
Summary
- Kraken parent Payward will buy Hong Kong-based Reap Technologies for $600 million in cash and stock.
- The deal values Payward’s stock at $20 billion and is designed to accelerate Kraken’s expansion across Asia.
- Reap brings stablecoin-based cross-border payment and commercial payment infrastructure into Kraken’s stack.
Kraken’s parent company Payward Inc. has agreed to acquire Hong Kong-based Reap Technologies for $600 million in a cash-and-stock deal, marking one of the largest bets yet by a global crypto exchange on stablecoin payment infrastructure in Asia, according to Bloomberg. The transaction values the Payward shares issued in the deal at a $20 billion equity valuation, effectively reaffirming the level Kraken reached in its last major funding round before IPO preparations began.
Reap is a financial technology company that builds stablecoin-enabled infrastructure for business payments, including cross-border settlement, corporate cards, and expense management, with its flagship Reap Direct product integrating fiat and stablecoin rails for corporate clients. Headquartered in Hong Kong, the firm has been expanding its global headquarters in the city to “tap into payments opportunities” as local regulators roll out a licensing regime for fiat-referenced stablecoins, positioning itself as a beneficiary of that policy shift. In a blog post on its own site, Reap argues that “stablecoins are the future of cross-border payments,” saying blockchain-based rails can strip out intermediaries and significantly reduce transaction costs for businesses.
Payward and Kraken co-CEO Arjun Sethi said in the Bloomberg report that the stock portion of the deal is being issued at a $20 billion valuation, signaling that the firm wants to anchor its M&A currency at the same level as its late 2025 raise. In that $800 million funding round, Kraken told investors it would use the capital to expand into Latin America, the Asia-Pacific region and EMEA while broadening offerings “beyond cryptocurrencies to encompass additional asset classes, sophisticated trading tools, enhanced payment services, and improved institutional capabilities,” as Yahoo Finance reported.
The Reap acquisition lands just weeks after Kraken confirmed to CNBC that it has confidentially filed for an initial public offering in the United States, with recent secondary transactions implying valuations between $13.3 billion and $20 billion depending on the investor. In a recent crypto.news story, analysts noted that Hong Kong’s decision to license fiat-backed stablecoins and tighten rules on virtual asset dealers is intended to make the city a regional hub for tokenized finance, a backdrop that makes Reap’s Hong Kong base strategically valuable for Kraken’s expansion.
Kraken’s move also fits into a broader trend of exchanges racing to lock in stablecoin rails in Asia as businesses increasingly adopt dollar-pegged tokens for trade and remittances, a pattern highlighted in a previous crypto.news story on the city’s regulatory pivot and a separate story on how regional demand is reshaping on-chain liquidity. By absorbing Reap’s infrastructure and licenses, Payward is betting that control over dollar and stablecoin payment flows in and out of Asia will be as important to its future as spot and derivatives trading are today.