BNY is in talks with Payward, the Wyoming-based parent of crypto exchange Kraken, on a potential partnership spanning crypto products, custody, wealth management, trading, payments and financial infrastructure, according to two people familiar with the discussions. The arrangement could use Payward Services, the company's business-to-business platform for banks, exchanges and asset managers, and resembles aspects of Payward's recent infrastructure collaboration with Nasdaq. Negotiations remain ongoing with no assurance of an agreement. BNY is separately developing tokenized deposits for institutional collateral and margin workflows, while Payward has expanded its regulated U.S. derivatives, stablecoin-payments and wallet-infrastructure operations through acquisitions. Nasdaq Ventures agreed in September to invest $100 million in Payward at a reported $21 billion valuation.