Payward, parent company of Kraken, and Ledger announced a strategic partnership on September 24, 2026, to integrate secure self-custody with global trading and market infrastructure. The collaboration enables users to access Payward’s trading, payments, and tokenized equities services directly from Ledger devices while maintaining full control of their private keys, addressing a long-standing friction point between asset security and market access.
- xStocks transaction volume: Over $42 billion
- Ledger signers sold globally: 8+ million across 165+ countries
- Retail crypto assets secured by Ledger: Nearly 30% of Bitcoin and 30%+ of dollar stablecoins
- Initial geographic rollout: Europe and the UK for debit card and bank transfer services
Under the agreement, Kraken customers can now use their Ledger signer directly within the exchange interface to fund accounts, withdraw assets, and sign transactions with full Clear Signing support. Simultaneously, Payward Services will become an embedded buy, sell, and swap provider within Ledger Wallet, beginning with debit card and bank transfer functionality in Europe and the UK, with further payment methods and regions planned.
Self-custody and exchange access shouldn’t feel like separate experiences and ecosystems. The investors who care most about controlling their assets are often the same ones who need deep liquidity, trusted market infrastructure, and secure access to the broader financial system. By partnering with Ledger, we’re building where the industry is heading: a future where secure self-custody and global financial infrastructure work hand in hand to provide powerful and seamless trading experiences.
– David Ripley, Co-CEO, Payward
Ledger brings the hardware-enforced security infrastructure that the entire digital asset ecosystem depends on — securing not just value, but access itself. Through this partnership, we’re giving retail users and, through Ledger Enterprise, the banks and fintechs building on institutional-grade rails, secure access to Payward’s financial infrastructure, backed by Ledger’s uncompromising security. This is self-custody and global markets working as one, at every scale.
– Pascal Gauthier, Chairman & CEO, Ledger
The partnership roadmap includes deeper integration of xStocks, Payward’s tokenized equities offering, enabling Ledger Wallet users to buy, sell, and trade hundreds of US and international equities onchain while maintaining self-custody. Payward Services will also integrate with Ledger Enterprise to provide banks, fintechs, and financial institutions with access to trading, qualified custody, payments, and funding infrastructure through Kraken’s exchange platform. Payward is a unified financial infrastructure provider powering Kraken, NinjaTrader, Breakout, xStocks, and CF Benchmarks across a shared architecture for risk management, settlement, and compliance.
Pascal Gauthier, Chairman & CEO of Ledger. Source: LinkedIn
