Kraken parent Payward links with Singapore Gulf Bank for round-the-clock settlement
Ecosystem ·
Payward has struck a deal with a Bahrain-regulated digital bank to give institutional crypto clients continuous, instant settlement across parts of Asia and the Gulf.
Payward, the parent company of Kraken, has formed a strategic alliance with Singapore Gulf Bank (SGB), a digital bank holding a full license from the Central Bank of Bahrain, according to wublockchain.xyz. Under the arrangement, Payward has plugged into SGB's clearing infrastructure, known as SGB Net, which handles multiple currencies and operates in real time, to deliver round-the-clock instant settlement to institutional customers in selected jurisdictions spanning Asia and the Gulf region.
At launch, the capability is limited to U.S. dollar transactions for a defined set of clients, with both companies indicating intentions to widen the service to additional clients and currencies over time. The arrangement also runs in the opposite direction: SGB will tap into Payward's Kraken Prime offering, gaining access to digital-asset liquidity and trade pricing for its own customer base, a detail also confirmed by businesswire.com.
The structure effectively links a regulated banking settlement rail with a digital-asset liquidity and pricing venue, aiming to close the gap between traditional clearing hours and the continuous nature of crypto markets. For institutions operating across time zones in the Gulf and Asia, same-day or after-hours settlement constraints have historically been a friction point; connecting to a always-on multi-currency network is intended to address that directly.
Two distinct sources have covered the announcement, both describing the same core terms: the initial dollar-only scope, the plan for currency and client expansion, and the reciprocal access SGB gains to Kraken Prime's liquidity and pricing. Neither account specifies a timeline for broader currency support or names which jurisdictions beyond the general Asia-Gulf framing will be included first.
What remains unclear is the pace of the planned expansion — including which currencies beyond the dollar are being considered and which additional institutional clients might be onboarded next. Also unaddressed is the scale of transaction volume expected to move through the integrated settlement channel once it is operational.