On one side is a financial technology company that holds a banking license and started out as a loan and investment business, and on the other side is the parent company of an established cryptocurrency exchange. The cooperation negotiated between SoFi Technologies and Payward is simple: connect SoFi’s existing bank settlement network to the digital asset infrastructure of Payward’s Kraken.
SoFi Technologies is a US-listed financial technology company whose business covers bank deposits, loans and investment transactions; Payward is the parent company of the cryptocurrency exchange Kraken and has been operating digital asset trading and custody infrastructure for many years. The two used to belong to two separate systems: traditional finance and cryptocurrency. This cooperation is equivalent to building a bridge between the two pipelines.
The public materials currently only confirm the direction of the cooperation - the connection between bank settlement networks and digital asset infrastructure. It has not yet mentioned what specific services will be opened, what asset classes will be involved, and no launch time or commercial terms have been announced.
