Payward, the unified financial infrastructure platform behind Kraken, has partnered with Singapore Gulf Bank (SGB), a fully licensed digital bank regulated by the Central Bank of Bahrain, to bring always-on settlement to institutional digital asset markets. The offering is available in specific jurisdictions only, with institutional clients in Asia and the Gulf region the initial focus.
As part of the deal, Payward has integrated SGB Net, SGB’s real-time multi-currency clearing network. Institutional clients of both firms can now settle transactions instantly, 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The service starts with US dollar transactions for a select number of clients, with plans to add more clients and currencies over time.
The gap it targets is a familiar one. Settlement between banks and trading venues has historically taken days and followed fixed cut-off times, even though digital asset markets trade around the clock. Through SGB Net, an SGB client can deposit funds with Payward and put them to work instantly at any hour.
On the liquidity side, SGB is also partnering with Kraken Prime, Payward’s full-service prime brokerage solution, to source liquidity for its digital asset offerings. Over the coming months, SGB will draw on Payward’s markets to price trades for its own customers.
SGB launched SGB Net in 2025 for digital asset businesses with growing operational needs, and the network now processes more than $20 billion in fiat transactions each month. The bank is backed by Mumtalakat, Bahrain’s sovereign wealth fund, and Singapore’s Whampoa Group.
Mark Greenberg, Chief Commercial Officer of Payward, pointed to a constraint that exchanges, payment providers, OTC desks and fintechs all share, and framed the partnership as a step toward real-time settlement wherever clients operate.
“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. SGB has built settlement infrastructure that reflects the future of digital asset banking and payments,” Greenberg said. “Every regulated bank we connect with this way brings us closer to a world where settlement and cross-border payments happen in real time, wherever our clients are.”
Shawn Chan, Chief Executive Officer of SGB, tied the move to the idea that access to liquidity only matters if funds can move when clients need them to. “Access to liquidity is only useful if clients can move funds when they need to,” Chan said. “By connecting SGB Net with Payward and partnering with Kraken Prime, we are bringing settlement and liquidity closer together, giving clients more flexibility in how they fund and manage their digital asset activity.”
The partnership forms part of Payward Banking, the money layer behind the Payward platform, which covers how clients move cash across deposits, payments, cards, custody and lending. Payward says it will keep adding banking partners to offer a broader suite of banking services to clients worldwide.
For most people, this announcement will pass unnoticed, since it is aimed at institutional clients rather than everyday investors. Its relevance sits in a quieter place. Digital asset markets have run nonstop for years while the banking system underneath them has kept office hours, and that mismatch has shaped how firms hold cash and manage risk. Efforts to close that gap, whether through new clearing networks or new banking partnerships, are part of how the two worlds continue to move closer together.
Herald View: Few problems in digital assets are as unglamorous as the weekend. Markets keep trading, but the bank on the other side of the trade goes home. Payward and SGB are going after that gap directly, and the $20 billion SGB Net already handles each month suggests the rails carry real weight. The more telling detail is the cautious start. One currency, a select group of clients, specific jurisdictions. That restraint makes sense for something that touches institutional cash. The real test is whether more regulated banks sign on, because always-on settlement only becomes the norm when enough of the banking side keeps the same hours as the market.