Bitcoin Magazine

Kraken and SoFi Link Crypto Trading To Banking Rails

Payward, the parent company of crypto exchange Kraken, and fintech company SoFi Technologies on Thursday announced a deal to route SoFi customers’ crypto orders through Kraken’s institutional trading platform and list SoFi’s stablecoin on the exchange.

Under the agreement, SoFi will send its digital asset order flow to Kraken Prime, Kraken’s prime brokerage arm, which launched in 2025. 

Rather than filling trades against a single order book, Kraken Prime uses smart order routing to compare prices and depth across multiple venues and execute where the fill is best. SoFi said customers will see no change to the app itself.

Payward is also joining the SoFi Exchange Network, the bank’s real-time settlement system, and will list SoFiUSD — SoFi’s bank-issued stablecoin — on Kraken. 

Kraken Prime’s institutional and business clients will in turn gain access to SoFi’s business banking services and round-the-clock fiat settlement. The companies said qualified custody services would follow later.

SoFi holds a national bank charter and has 15.8 million members. The partnership is the latest in a series of tie-ups between Kraken and established financial firms, following arrangements with Deutsche Börse on foreign exchange and derivatives infrastructure, Nasdaq on a tokenized equities gateway, and Franklin Templeton on tokenizing exchange-traded funds.

The news comes after SoFi, a purely digital lender, last year became the first nationally chartered bank in the United States to launch crypto services for retail customers.

SoFiUSD is coming to Kraken.

Soon you'll hold, buy & sell SoFiUSD right in your Kraken account, through @Payward's partnership with @SoFi.

SoFi members get better prices, with @KrakenPrimeHQ pulling liquidity from across the market.

Full details: https://t.co/Mue5nJ4Ryj pic.twitter.com/He53EzjrWd

— Kraken (@krakenfx) September 3, 2026

The company’s new SoFi crypto platform allows members to buy, sell and hold bitcoin directly within their bank accounts.

Kraken — like other crypto exchanges — is pushing into the traditional finance world, allowing users to trade stocks, bonds and other assets. The company has sold its app as a “primary account for everything.”

This post Kraken and SoFi Link Crypto Trading To Banking Rails first appeared on Bitcoin Magazine and is written by Mathew Di Salvo.

Bitcoin Magazine

Standard Chartered Debuts Bitcoin Trading In the United Arab Emirates 

Multinational bank Standard Chartered announced Thursday that it had debuted bitcoin spot trading for institutional clients in the United ‌Arab Emirates. 

The bank said that eligible institutional clients would be able to use the service — the first of its kind in the country. 

Standard Chartered in 2024 launched digital asset custody services in the UAE, months before it debuted spot crypto trading in other countries. 

JUST IN: Standard Chartered Bank becomes first Global Systemically Important Bank to launch institutional Bitcoin trading in the UAE pic.twitter.com/yeOMtcO7bo

— Bitcoin Magazine (@BitcoinMagazine) September 3, 2026

“The UAE has developed a clear digital assets regulatory framework that supports institutional participation and innovation,” Rola Abu Manneh, Chief Executive Officer, UAE, Middle East and Pakistan at Standard Chartered, said.

He added: “By combining execution with secure custody, governance and the connectivity of a global bank, we are providing clients with a more integrated way to participate in digital asset markets.”

Standard Chartered in 2025 set up a trading desk for bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies in London, making it one of the first global banks to enter spot cryptocurrency trading.

The crypto desk became part of the forex trading operation. The bank the same year debuted a blockchain unit called Libeara to help institutions tokenize traditional assets. 

Standard Chartered has lately said that bitcoin’s price should continue to surge this year. Writing in an August note to investors, the bank’s Global Head of Digital Assets Research, Geoffrey Kendrick, said that a $100,000 price forecast by year-end was too low. 

“Once investors remember how quickly prices can accelerate to the topside, and we get past the 6 October date (12 months after the all-time high) an overshoot towards the all-time high (USD126k) before year-end may be possible,” he said, adding that bitcoin’s bear market so far has been the shallowest on record. 

This post Standard Chartered Debuts Bitcoin Trading In the United Arab Emirates  first appeared on Bitcoin Magazine and is written by Mathew Di Salvo.