Historic milestone enables direct access to the U.S. payments system, strengthening Kraken’s institutional offering
Payward, a unified financial infrastructure platform powering Kraken, announced that Kraken Financial, its Wyoming-chartered bank, has been granted a Federal Reserve master account. The approval makes Kraken Financial the first digital asset bank in U.S. history to gain direct access to the Federal Reserve’s payment infrastructure.
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The decision marks a major milestone and underscores years of sustained regulatory engagement, operational rigor, and close coordination with U.S. and Wyoming supervisors. It further strengthens Payward’s unified infrastructure model by integrating Federal Reserve connectivity directly into the platform’s settlement and payments layer.
“This milestone marks the convergence of crypto infrastructure and sovereign financial rails. With a Federal Reserve master account, we can operate not as a peripheral participant in the U.S. banking system, but as a directly connected financial institution,” said Arjun Sethi, co-CEO of Payward and Kraken. “For a Wyoming SPDI structured on a full-reserve model, this creates a uniquely resilient foundation. It gives us the ability to settle directly on Fedwire, reduce dependency on correspondent banks, and integrate regulated fiat liquidity directly into digital asset markets.”
Sethi continued, “Over time, this architecture could enable atomic settlement between fiat and crypto, institutional-grade cash management integrated with digital asset custody, and programmable financial products built within a fully regulated framework. This is what it looks like when crypto infrastructure matures into core financial infrastructure.”
Through its Federal Reserve master account, Kraken Financial can connect directly to core U.S. payment rails, including Fedwire, without relying on intermediary banks. This direct connectivity enables faster and more efficient fiat movement for institutional clients, while reducing complexity, cost, and operational dependencies.
Kraken Financial will begin with a phased rollout, initially focused on facilitating institutional client activity at Kraken, with capabilities integrated into Payward’s broader infrastructure over time, in close coordination with regulators.
The approval follows more than five years of sustained regulatory engagement, extensive examination, and operational scrutiny. As a Wyoming-chartered Special Purpose Depository Institution (SPDI), Kraken Financial is a state-regulated bank operating on a full-reserve basis, holding liquid assets equal to or exceeding 100% of client fiat deposits.
Kraken Financial will continue to work closely with the Federal Reserve and Wyoming regulators as it expands its payment capabilities over time, further building durable infrastructure that seamlessly bridges digital assets and traditional finance.
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