According to CoinMeta, and as reported by several media outlets, NASDAQ will invest $100 million in the parent company of Kraken, Payward, to further deepen the partnership between the two parties. The aim is to bring tokenized stocks into the mainstream capital markets. This investment has raised the valuation of Payward to approximately $21 billion. The collaboration between NASDAQ and Payward will connect regulated stocks with blockchain infrastructure; both parties are developing NASDAQ Stock Tokens (NETs), which is expected to be launched in the second quarter of 2027. Payward will utilize its existing xstocks infrastructure to integrate into this system, while also adopting NASDAQ's market monitoring technology. In March, Payward stated that the trading volume of xstocks had exceeded $25 billion, with over $4 billion settled on-chain, and there were more than 85,000 holders. Recent reports indicate that the trading volume of xstocks has surpassed $38 billion since its expansion into Europe.