Sources: Nasdaq is investing $100M in Kraken parent Payward, valuing the cryptocurrency exchange at $21B; Kraken will distribute Nasdaq's tokenized stocks (Katherine Doherty/Bloomberg)

Nasdaq is committing $100 million to Payward, the parent company of Kraken, in a transaction that values the cryptocurrency exchange at $21 billion. The investment will enable Kraken to offer Nasdaq-issued tokenized stocks on its platform, expanding retail access to blockchain-based equity products.