Wells Fargo is reportedly in talks with Kraken's parent to supply crypto trading liquidity
Two people with knowledge of the talks told CoinDesk the bank is discussing a liquidity supply deal with Payward. Neither company has confirmed it, and no terms have been reported.
Wells Fargo is in talks with Payward, the parent company of the Kraken exchange, about getting liquidity for crypto trading, CoinDesk reported on October 7, citing two people with direct knowledge of the discussions. Both companies declined to comment, and no terms of any deal have been made public. The talks are described as ongoing, so they may not end in an agreement.
What "supplying liquidity" means
A bank that wants to let clients buy and sell crypto needs somewhere to execute those trades. Building that market access itself takes years of work on pricing, custody and compliance. The alternative is to plug into an existing trading venue and put the bank's own brand and client relationship on top. In the reported arrangement, Payward would be the market behind the screen and Wells Fargo would be the front end its customers see. Kraken's institutional arm, Kraken Prime, is the unit that does this kind of work.
Why Payward is a natural counterparty
Payward is already building a bank network. In September 2026 SoFi announced an agreement giving its users access to Kraken Prime liquidity, with 24/7 dollar settlement. BNY has also been reported to be in separate discussions with Payward about infrastructure, and we covered the Singapore-based SGB Net link in our earlier report. Reports say Wells Fargo also advised Nasdaq on its $100 million investment in Payward in September, a deal that valued the crypto company at $21 billion. That is a connection between the two firms, not evidence that a trading deal will follow.
Other banks are doing the same with other partners
Wells Fargo would not be the first large U.S. bank to rent crypto infrastructure rather than build it. PNC and Coinbase launched direct spot bitcoin trading for eligible PNC Private Bank clients, powered by Coinbase's platform, and Citi and Coinbase agreed to work on stablecoin payment tools for the bank's institutional clients. Those are different products, one for retail-style bitcoin trading and one for institutional payments. We found no confirmed report that JPMorgan trades through Coinbase, so we are not counting it here.
What to watch
There are three things that would turn this from a report into news: a statement from either company, a stated launch date, and the list of assets Wells Fargo clients could trade. Until then the useful point is the pattern. Large banks that held off on crypto are now shopping for partners, and exchanges that used to serve only traders are becoming suppliers to banks. How fast clients actually use the service is the open question. Follow the day-to-day moves on our crypto page.
Sources: crypto.news, citing CoinDesk; Crypto Briefing; Coinbase; Banking Dive. Information, not investment advice.
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