Payward, the financial infrastructure company behind crypto exchange Kraken, has integrated Singapore Gulf Bank's real-time clearing network SGB Net to give institutional clients around-the-clock US dollar settlement for digital-asset transactions.

Payward announced the partnership on Sunday. The service launches with a select group of institutional clients in eligible jurisdictions across Asia and the Gulf region, supporting US dollar transactions first, with additional clients and currencies planned over time.

What problem does the integration solve?

The partnership targets a structural mismatch in crypto markets: assets trade continuously, including weekends, but the fiat cash funding those trades remains bound by bank cut-off times and multi-day settlement cycles. Through SGB Net, institutional clients can deposit funds with Payward and deploy them immediately, even on non-banking days.

Mark Greenberg, Payward's chief commercial officer, said the deal addresses a constraint shared across the industry.

"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," Greenberg said.

For Singapore Gulf Bank, connecting its clearing rails to Kraken Prime's liquidity allows institutional clients to move cash and trade without waiting for the next banking day. Neither firm disclosed the number of clients in the initial rollout or the transaction volumes involved.

How large is the clearing network?

Singapore Gulf Bank launched SGB Net in 2025. The bank says the network now processes more than $20 billion in fiat transactions each month, giving Payward's institutional clients access to an established real-time settlement channel rather than a newly built one.

Where does this fit in Payward's strategy?

The deal marks another step in Payward's expansion beyond Kraken's exchange business into infrastructure that connects trading, custody, payments and banking. The move follows a report last week that BNY is in discussions with Payward over a potential tie-up spanning digital assets, custody, trading and payments.

The operational consequence for institutional traders is direct: capital parked in fiat no longer sits idle across weekends or after regional banking cut-offs, shortening funding cycles for firms running continuous trading books in crypto markets.

Payward and SGB said they plan to expand the service to more clients and additional currencies over time, though neither firm set a public timeline for the rollout's next phase.