News linked to both this project and an event.
Odaily, March 11 – Kraken has partnered with MoneyGram to enable users in over 100 countries to withdraw cryptocurrencies into fiat cash. (Cointelegraph)
According to CoinDesk, Payward—the parent company of Kraken—filed a second amended complaint in the U.S. District Court for the District of Colorado against its former custody partner Etana Custody and its CEO, Dion Brandon Russell, alleging misappropriation of over $25 million in customer funds and operation of a “Ponzi scheme.” Payward claims that Etana commingled custodial assets with its own funds to cover operating expenses and make high-risk investments, while using false account statements to conceal the resulting funding shortfall. In April 2025, when Kraken attempted to withdraw approximately $25 million in reserve funds, Etana delayed the withdrawal, citing fabricated reconciliation issues, and instead relied on new deposits to fill the gap. At least $16 million of the misappropriated funds was invested in promissory notes issued by Seabury Trade Capital, which later defaulted. Subsequently, Colorado state regulators issued a cease-and-desist order against Etana, which entered liquidation proceedings in November 2025 and is now under the management of a court-appointed receiver. Kraken is seeking at least $25 million in damages, plus treble civil theft penalties.
According to The Block, Payward, Kraken’s parent company, has announced the completion of its acquisition of Chicago-based crypto-native exchange Bitnomial, thereby obtaining a full suite of U.S. derivatives licenses from the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), including Futures Commission Merchant (FCM), Designated Contract Market (DCM), and Derivatives Clearing Organization (DCO) licenses. Payward stated that it will first launch spot margin trading on Kraken, followed by perpetual contracts and options products, all available to eligible U.S. customers. This acquisition will also provide partners—including banks, brokers, and payment service providers—with a channel to offer U.S. derivatives to their end customers. Bitnomial will operate independently under Payward while retaining its existing licenses and regulatory framework. The transaction’s value is reported to be up to $550 million, comprising cash and stock, implying a valuation for Payward of approximately $20 billion; however, the final terms have not been disclosed.
Payward (Kraken’s parent company) has announced the completion of its acquisition of Bitnomial, marking its official entry into the U.S. crypto derivatives market with full regulatory credentials. Following the transaction, Payward now holds a comprehensive set of U.S. CFTC licenses, including Futures Commission Merchant (FCM), Designated Contract Market (DCM), and Derivatives Clearing Organization (DCO) status, enabling it to launch compliant derivatives services in the U.S. market.Payward stated that it will gradually roll out spot margin trading under the Kraken brand, followed by plans to launch perpetual contracts and options products, while expanding institutional-grade derivatives capabilities through the Bitnomial framework. It is reported that Bitnomial, as a Chicago-based native crypto derivatives trading platform, has long held the three core CFTC licenses and has been relatively aggressive in listing new assets. After the transaction, it will retain its existing licenses and regulatory framework, continuing operations within the Payward system.Additionally, this acquisition continues Payward’s recent expansion moves: the company had previously secured a $200 million investment from Deutsche Börse Group and filed IPO-related documents with the U.S. SEC, signaling its accelerated push into globally compliant derivatives and capital market pathways. (The Block)
Blockworks has announced the completion of a Series A extension funding round, achieving a post-money valuation of $192 million. The round was co-led by ParaFi Capital and Reciprocal Ventures, with support from Coinbase Ventures, MoonPay Ventures, and several other institutions and industry participants. The funding also attracted investments from over 20 founders and operators of ecosystem projects including Solana, LayerZero, Arbitrum, and Kraken, though the specific amount raised has not been disclosed.The company stated that while the crypto market has grown to a trillion-dollar scale lacking traditional capital market infrastructure, it still faces issues such as fragmented data, inconsistent disclosure standards, and a lack of investor communication mechanisms. Blockworks aims to fill this gap through a "data + disclosure + investor relations" tripartite architecture. (CNBC)
PrimePiper has launched an enterprise-grade prime broker platform for AI agents, designed to address challenges including fragmented account management, inadequate risk control, inability to reconcile across venues, and insufficient compliance auditing in AI-driven automated trading. According to the company, its infrastructure supports unified connectivity to multiple trading venues—including Hyperliquid, OKX, Tiger Brokers, and Interactive Brokers (IBKR). For risk control, PrimePiper offers enterprise-grade API key management, spending limits, and circuit-breaker mechanisms to constrain AI agent trading behavior. At the execution layer, it enables automated strategy execution via SDK or the Model Context Protocol (MCP). For compliance and auditing, it provides audit-grade reporting capabilities tailored for funds and traders. PrimePiper has been selected for the latest cohort of Founders Inc’s accelerator program; its product is currently in the Alpha stage. Team members hail from Galois Capital, Kraken, DRW, and AWS.
On-chain investigator ZachXBT questioned Kraken’s due diligence process for listing $M (Memecore) spot trading on July 3, 2025, noting that approximately 7.9 million $M were withdrawn from Kraken to 18 newly created addresses; these addresses collectively now hold roughly 11.7 million $M—valued at approximately $39.8 million at current prices. He also stated that addresses suspected to belong to the Memecore team received 200 million $M during the token generation event (TGE) and transferred 5.3 million $M to Kraken’s deposit address on July 3, 2025.
According to Reuters, Kraken has become the first cryptocurrency exchange approved for a Federal Reserve master account. However, the account is restricted: it only permits Kraken’s banking operations to access the Fedwire payment system and hold limited balances—earning no interest and ineligible for emergency lending. This move has raised concerns in the U.S. financial system regarding risk and transparency, including a call from Maxine Waters, Chair of the House Financial Services Committee, for greater disclosure of account details. Regulatory experts warn that lightly regulated crypto firms gaining direct access to the Federal Reserve’s payment system could pose operational and financial stability risks. The Federal Reserve stated that these restrictions are intended to mitigate liquidity shocks and credit risk; however, banks caution that they may impair banking system liquidity and exacerbate money laundering and operational vulnerabilities. Kraken says its bank reserves are fully backed and that it complies with bank-level anti-money laundering (AML) and customer identification requirements.