Payments

Kraken gains Federal Reserve master account

Photo: Adobe Stock

March 16, 2026

Summarize with

Kraken Financial, a digital bank owned by Payward, has acquired a Federal Reserve master account. Kraken is the first digital asset bank to gain access to the reserve's payment infrastructure, according to a press release.

The bank can use the account to connect to U.S. payment rails such as Fedwire without intermediaries. It will start with a phased rollout first with institutional clients. With the service, Kraken can handle faster movement of fiat currency.

"This milestone marks the convergence of crypto infrastructure and sovereign financial rails. With a Federal Reserve master account, we can operate not as a peripheral participant in the U.S. banking system, but as a directly connected financial institution," Arjun Sethi, co-CEO of Payward and Kraken, said in the release. "Over time, this architecture could enable atomic settlement between fiat and crypto, institutional-grade cash management integrated with digital asset custody, and programmable financial products built within a fully regulated framework. This is what it looks like when crypto infrastructure matures into core financial infrastructure."

Kraken handles more than 600 digital assets and cryptocurrencies.