Payward, the parent company of crypto exchange Kraken, and fintech firm SoFi Technologies announced a deal on Thursday to route SoFi customers' crypto orders through Kraken's institutional trading platform and to list SoFi's stablecoin on the exchange.

Under the agreement, SoFi will direct its digital asset order flow to Kraken Prime, Kraken's prime brokerage arm, which launched in 2025. Rather than filling trades against a single order book, Kraken Prime uses smart order routing to compare prices and depth across multiple venues and execute where the fill is best. For a bank with 15.8 million members, routing retail flow through a specialized prime brokerage rather than building that execution infrastructure in-house is a way to improve trade execution without new development costs. SoFi said customers will see no change to the app itself.

Payward is also joining the SoFi Exchange Network, the bank's real-time settlement system, and will list SoFiUSD — SoFi's bank-issued stablecoin — on Kraken. Bank-issued stablecoins remain rare in the United States, and the listing would place SoFiUSD alongside privately issued tokens such as USDC and USDT on a major exchange, giving the bank a direct presence in crypto's payment and trading rails.

In turn, Kraken Prime's institutional and business clients will gain access to SoFi's business banking services and round-the-clock fiat settlement. The companies said qualified custody services would follow later — a notable step, since regulated custody has been a long-standing hurdle for institutional adoption of digital assets.

SoFi holds a national bank charter and has 15.8 million members. The partnership is the latest in a series of tie-ups between Kraken and established financial firms, following arrangements with Deutsche Börse on foreign exchange and derivatives infrastructure, Nasdaq on a tokenized equities gateway, and Franklin Templeton on tokenizing exchange-traded funds.

The news comes after SoFi, a purely digital lender, last year became the first nationally chartered bank in the United States to launch crypto services for retail customers. The company's new SoFi crypto platform allows members to buy, sell and hold bitcoin directly within their bank accounts.

Kraken announced the move on X:

SoFiUSD is coming to Kraken. Soon you'll hold, buy & sell SoFiUSD right in your Kraken account, through @Payward's partnership with @SoFi. SoFi members get better prices, with @KrakenPrimeHQ pulling liquidity from across the market. Full details: pic.twitter.com/He53EzjrWd — Kraken (@krakenfx) September 3, 2026

Kraken — like other crypto exchanges — is pushing into the traditional finance world, allowing users to trade stocks, bonds and other assets. The company has marketed its app as a "primary account for everything." The SoFi deal runs in the opposite direction, with a chartered bank plugging into crypto-native infrastructure, and the two moves together reflect a broader convergence between crypto platforms and regulated banking. Further signs to watch include the rollout of the promised qualified custody services and the timing of SoFiUSD's actual listing and availability for trading on Kraken.

This article first appeared on Bitcoin Magazine and is written by Mathew Di Salvo.