Invest2 publishers2 min readPublished
Payward wires Kraken Prime into Singapore Gulf Bank's SGB Net for 24/7 dollar settlement
Kraken parent Payward is joining Singapore Gulf Bank's SGB Net to settle dollars 24/7 for institutions in Asia and the Gulf. On a network reportedly clearing over $2bn a month, the link may do as much for the bank as for Kraken.
The Investor · Invest desk
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What happened
- Liquidity for the new service runs through Kraken Prime, Payward's institutional prime brokerage arm.
- SGB Net, the bank's real-time multi-currency clearing network, went live in May 2025.
- Cactus Custody and Fireblocks, both serving institutional digital asset clients, already have 24/7 links to SGB Net.
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Why it matters
- constraint Institutions outside the select launch group, or funding in anything other than dollars, still wait on next-business-day wires until access widens.
- exposure Kraken Prime's round-the-clock dollar flow in Asia and the Gulf now depends on a Bahrain-regulated bank that only opened corporate banking in late 2024.
- decision Payward is getting 24/7 dollar reach by plugging into networks that banks run, leaving the clearing build and the banking licence with its partners.
- precedent Crypto Briefing argues that smooth dollar settlement would make extending the model to other currencies an easier sell to clients and regulators.
Over $2bn a month, the volume SGB Net has reportedly handled [8], comes to roughly $67m a calendar day [1], or rather $67m a day for everyone on the network combined, Kraken Prime now included [5]. The report does not say what Payward pays to connect, how much flow it expects to route, or how SGB Net settles dollar balances while conventional banks are closed [1].
The gap has a size. A week has 168 hours and a weekend 48 of them, so a back office that opens on Monday morning [12] leaves about 29% of the week with no clearing window before a single weekday night is counted [2]. Digital assets trade through all 168 [13]. The companies' stated aim is less operational friction and faster deployment of client funds [11].
The deal supports more than one reading. In the first, it is SGB's win: a bank whose network has been live for 17 months [3] adds Kraken's prime brokerage as a source of flow. Crypto Briefing's reading is geographic, describing the deal as the SoFi template "pointed at a different part of the map" [14]. In a third, the service stays a pilot at launch size, though both companies say more clients and currencies are planned [4].
I think the first reading is closest. Payward already had real-time dollar settlement through SoFi from September [9], so the new link adds regions to something it already had, while SGB adds a prime broker to its network. The counter-case is that Gulf and Asian institutions may want a locally licensed bank on the other side of their dollars. If so, the SGB link would reach clients the SoFi arrangement does not, and Payward is the bigger winner.
If SGB Net's reported monthly volume climbs well past $2bn once Kraken flow is live, the deal is bigger for Payward than I am allowing [8].
What to watch
- The first currency beyond USD added to the Payward link, and how long after the October 4 launch it arrives.
- Whether Payward opens the service past the select launch group to Kraken Prime's wider institutional client base.
- Whether Kraken Prime's liquidity offering expands alongside the settlement rails.