Payward, the financial‑infrastructure company behind Kraken, has integrated Singapore Gulf Bank's real‑time clearing network so institutional clients can settle digital‑asset transactions and fund trading around the clock, even on non‑banking days.
The rollout starts small: U.S. dollar transactions only, for a select group of institutional clients in eligible Asian and Gulf jurisdictions, with more clients and currencies promised later. The firms did not disclose how many clients are in the initial group or what volumes they expect.
The problem being solved
Crypto trades nonstop. Banks do not. That mismatch means the cash side of a trade often sits idle waiting for bank cut‑off times and multi‑day settlement while the asset side moves instantly.
Mark Greenberg, Payward's chief commercial officer, put it plainly in the announcement:
"Exchanges, payment providers, OTC desks and fintechs all run into the same banking constraint: settlement stops when the business day does, while their markets do not."
The fix is SGB Net, the Bahrain‑regulated bank's real‑time clearing network. Clients deposit funds with Payward and can use the money immediately. SGB Net launched in 2025 and processes more than $20 billion in fiat transactions each month, according to the bank.
Mutual benefits
The deal runs both ways. Singapore Gulf Bank gets access to digital‑asset liquidity through Kraken Prime, Payward's prime brokerage, and plans to use Payward's markets to price customer trades in the coming months.
Payward's infrastructure push
This fits a bigger pattern at Payward. The company is expanding beyond the Kraken exchange into the plumbing that connects trading, custody, payments and banking. Last week a report noted that BNY is in discussions with Payward over a potential tie‑up spanning digital assets, custody, trading and payments. Cointelegraph also points to a report that Nasdaq invested $100 million in Kraken's parent at a $21 billion valuation.
I keep coming back to the irony here. Crypto was pitched as the thing that would make banks irrelevant. Instead, the most useful work in the industry right now is crypto firms wiring themselves directly into regulated banks so dollars can move on a Sunday.
Everyone is racing to kill banking hours
Payward and SGB have a partnership. A consortium including JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America and Barclays plans to launch a tokenized‑deposit network operated by The Clearing House in the first half of 2027, also aimed at 24/7 settlement. Circle and Nomura reportedly partnered in Japan to offer companies instant foreign‑exchange settlement from 2027. And on Sept. 21, the Bank of Korea unveiled a pilot to let foreign investors settle won transactions outside regular banking hours.
The direction is obvious. Banking hours are becoming a legacy constraint, and both crypto firms and the largest banks in the world are spending real money to route around them.
The skeptical read
Plumbing matters, and this is plumbing. But the announcement is thin on the details that would tell us how much it matters. No client count. No volume figures. No timeline for adding currencies beyond the dollar. SGB Net's $20 billion monthly figure comes from the bank itself, and there is no way to know how much of that flow will ever touch Payward's clients.
Worth watching. Not worth a victory lap yet.
Sources
- CoinDesk: Kraken operator Payward and Singapore Gulf Bank partner for 24/7 institutional crypto settlement
- Cointelegraph: Kraken parent adds 24/7 dollar settlement with Singapore Gulf Bank