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Crypto markets never close. Banks do. Payward, the parent company of Kraken, has partnered with Bahrain-regulated Singapore Gulf Bank to let selected institutional clients settle U.S. dollar transactions 24/7, announced Oct. 5.
The deal connects SGB Net, the bank’s real-time clearing network, to Payward’s infrastructure. Eligible clients can fund Payward accounts and trade with those dollars immediately, without waiting for the next banking day.
The central idea behind the agreement is straightforward: if digital-asset markets remain open around the clock, the movement of money supporting those markets needs to keep pace.
Through SGB Net, eligible SGB customers can transfer funds to Payward and make them available for trading immediately, including outside conventional banking hours. The service initially supports U.S. dollars, with Payward and SGB saying they intend to expand the offering to additional currencies and clients over time. No timetable for that expansion has been announced.
Mark Greenberg, Payward’s chief commercial officer, said the problem extends beyond crypto exchanges to other financial technology businesses.
“Settlement stops when the business day does, while their markets do not,” Greenberg said, describing the constraint facing exchanges, payment providers, over-the-counter desks and financial technology companies.
The push toward always-on Institutional payments also reflects a broader effort by financial infrastructure providers to reduce the delay between moving fiat and deploying capital into digital assets.
Payward has already pursued a similar model in the United States. In September, it partnered with SoFi, joining SoFi’s Exchange Network to enable qualified institutional clients to clear and settle U.S. dollar transactions 24/7. SoFi also agreed to use Kraken Prime for digital-asset trade execution and liquidity.
SGB launched its SGB Net infrastructure in 2025 as a real-time clearing network designed to serve businesses operating between traditional finance and digital assets.
According to SGB, the network now processes more than $20 billion in fiat transactions each month. That figure is a company-reported metric rather than an independently audited figure in the partnership announcement.
The bank has also been expanding its conventional payment infrastructure. In January, SGB announced that it had joined J.P. Morgan’s correspondent banking network and implemented Wire 365, allowing U.S. dollar clearing 365 days a year.
That infrastructure gives the latest Payward connection a wider significance for Institutional payments, particularly for companies moving capital between jurisdictions where banking hours do not align.
SGB is fully licensed and regulated by the Central Bank of Bahrain. The bank says it combines multi-currency accounts, international payments, remote account opening and digital-asset services for eligible customers. It is backed by Bahrain’s sovereign wealth fund Mumtalakat and Singapore-based Whampoa Group.
Shawn Chan, SGB’s chief executive officer, highlighted the importance of linking liquidity with the ability to move cash.
“Access to liquidity is only useful if clients can move funds when they need to,” Chan said.
That principle sits at the heart of the new Institutional payments arrangement: liquidity is less useful if capital cannot reach a trading venue when an opportunity or risk emerges.
The partnership is not limited to settlement.
SGB will also connect with Kraken Prime, Payward’s institutional prime brokerage platform, giving the bank another source of digital-asset liquidity. SGB plans to use Payward’s markets to help price digital-asset trades for its customers in the coming months.
That creates a two-way relationship. SGB provides the banking and settlement infrastructure, while Payward supplies access to digital-asset markets and liquidity.
For institutional traders, the combination could reduce the friction between maintaining money within the banking system and putting that capital to work in digital markets.
Still, the launch remains deliberately limited. The companies have not disclosed the number of participating institutions, expected transaction volumes or the specific digital assets that will be supported.
The initial focus on U.S. dollars also means the broader vision for Institutional payments has not arrived all at once. Additional currencies and clients are planned, but the companies have not provided specific expansion dates.
The SGB agreement is part of a wider strategy by Payward to build financial infrastructure around its Kraken business rather than relying solely on crypto trading.
Payward describes its platform as covering trading, payments, custody, lending and other financial services. Its banking strategy is designed to allow cash to move across deposits, payments, cards, custody and lending through a common infrastructure.
The company has also been pursuing additional regulated infrastructure in the United States. In May, Payward filed an application with the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency for a national trust company charter. If approved, Payward National Trust Company would provide fiduciary custody and related services, primarily for digital assets.
Together, those initiatives show where the company sees the institutional market heading: trading, custody, liquidity and Institutional payments increasingly need to operate as connected parts of the same financial system.
For SGB, the Payward relationship similarly strengthens its role at the intersection of traditional banking and digital assets.
The immediate takeaway is narrower but important. Selected institutions in supported Asian and Gulf jurisdictions can now move qualifying U.S. dollars through the Payward-SGB connection without being restricted to traditional banking hours.
As crypto markets continue operating 24/7, the race to modernize Institutional payments is increasingly becoming a race to ensure fiat money can move at the same speed.
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