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Payward and Ledger have partnered to connect Ledger's self-custody products with Payward's trading and payments infrastructure. The deal covers Kraken, Ledger Wallet and Payward's institutional services.
Under the arrangement, Kraken customers can use a Ledger signer within the Kraken experience to fund and withdraw assets and sign transactions. The integration will use Ledger's Device Management Kit and include Clear Signing support.
The partnership also extends to Ledger's consumer wallet. Payward Services, the group's business-to-business infrastructure arm, will be added as an embedded buy, sell and swap provider inside Ledger Wallet, starting with debit card and bank transfer support across Europe and the UK.
This would allow Ledger users to buy, sell and move crypto through Payward while keeping control of their private keys, rather than transferring custody to a trading venue. The companies plan to expand payment methods and geographic coverage over time.
Bridging services
The agreement links two parts of the digital asset market that have often remained separate: self-custody on one side, and exchange and payments access on the other. Ledger is best known for hardware-based storage tools, while Payward is the parent of Kraken and also develops infrastructure for tokenised equities through xStocks.
David Ripley, Co-CEO of Payward, outlined the rationale for the tie-up.
"Self-custody and exchange access shouldn't feel like separate experiences and ecosystems. The investors who care most about controlling their assets are often the same ones who need deep liquidity, trusted market infrastructure, and secure access to the broader financial system," said David Ripley, Co-CEO of Payward.
"By partnering with Ledger, we're building where the industry is heading: a future where secure self-custody and global financial infrastructure work hand in hand to provide powerful and seamless trading experiences," Ripley said.
Ledger said the deal targets both individual users and institutional clients using its enterprise products.
"Ledger brings the hardware-enforced security infrastructure that the entire digital asset ecosystem depends on - securing not just value, but access itself," said Pascal Gauthier, Chairman & CEO of Ledger.
"Through this partnership, we're giving retail users and, through Ledger Enterprise, the banks and fintechs building on institutional-grade rails, secure access to Payward's financial infrastructure, backed by Ledger's uncompromising security. This is self-custody and global markets working as one, at every scale," Gauthier said.
Tokenised equities
The two groups are also working on a deeper integration of xStocks into Ledger Wallet. According to the companies, this would give Ledger users access to tokenised US and international equities from self-custody wallets.
Payward said xStocks has surpassed USD $42 billion in total transaction volume. The planned integration is intended to let Ledger users buy, sell and transact in hundreds of tokenised equities directly from their own wallets.
The deal also has an institutional component. Payward Services will work with Ledger Enterprise to offer banks, fintechs and other financial institutions access to trading, qualified custody, payments and funding rails through a single connection to Kraken's exchange infrastructure.
Ledger said it has sold more than 8 million devices in more than 165 countries. It also said its products secure almost 30% of bitcoin and more than 30% of dollar stablecoins held by retail investors.
For Payward, the partnership broadens the distribution of its infrastructure beyond Kraken's customer interface and into third-party wallet software and institutional systems. For Ledger, it adds direct links to trading and payments services without requiring users to leave its wallet environment.
The agreement reflects a wider push across the crypto sector to reduce the trade-off between control of assets and access to market liquidity. In practice, users have often had to choose between keeping assets in their own wallets and moving them onto a platform to trade, fund accounts or use additional services.
By linking Ledger's signing tools with Kraken's interface and embedding Payward services inside Ledger Wallet, the companies are seeking to narrow that gap across retail and institutional channels.