Kraken and SoFi Bridge Crypto and Banking via SEN Integration

Kraken joins SoFi Exchange Network (SEN), enabling 24/7 dollar settlements and listing the SoFiUSD stablecoin for institutional and retail clients.

The deal provides institutional clients with access to 24-hour dollar settlements and expands the distribution of the banking stablecoin SoFiUSD.

Kraken Gains Access to SoFi’s Banking Network

The core element of the agreement is Payward’s entry into the SoFi Exchange Network, or SEN. This network enables real-time settlements, giving Kraken’s institutional clients the ability to transfer dollars and manage liquidity outside traditional banking hours.

This integration addresses a fundamental structural gap between traditional finance and crypto markets. While digital assets trade continuously, much of the fiat payment banking infrastructure still operates within restricted time windows.

By leveraging this partnership, Kraken can bridge this gap without having to build a parallel dollar settlement system from scratch.

SoFiUSD Lists on Kraken

The second pillar of the partnership focuses on expanding the reach of SoFiUSD. Kraken will list the stablecoin on its platform, making it accessible to a broader range of individual, professional, and institutional clients.

Issued by SoFi’s banking division, SoFiUSD is redeemable 1:1 for U.S. dollars. The company positions the asset as a bridge that combines blockchain-based payments with the oversight and safeguards of a regulated financial institution.

For SoFi, the listing represents more than just a new trading venue; it is a strategic move to extend its dollar infrastructure beyond its own proprietary application.

Kraken Prime to Provide Liquidity for SoFi Clients

The partnership also functions in the opposite direction. SoFi will integrate Kraken Prime as an additional liquidity source for crypto asset transactions performed by users within its app.

This means Kraken is not merely a consumer of SoFi’s banking infrastructure. Its institutional marketplace will now become a component of the infrastructure powering the financial firm’s crypto services.

SoFi aims to achieve better execution for client orders through this increased liquidity. The two companies also envision expanding the relationship to include qualified custody services in the future.

A Partnership Beyond Crypto Trading

This deal arrives months after SoFi launched “Big Business Banking” in April, which unified its corporate banking and digital services into a single infrastructure. This new partnership serves as the first major example of how an external financial platform can utilize that model.

The collaboration has the potential to expand into several other areas:

• Payments and transfers.
• Corporate liquidity management.
• Lending.
• Custody and other digital asset services.

For Payward, the agreement is part of a broader push into traditional financial infrastructure. Only two days prior, the company announced a partnership with the London Stock Exchange Group concerning tokenized British equities.

The connection with SoFi highlights a different side of the same strategy. Rather than banks and crypto platforms building isolated payment and trading systems, these two companies are opening their infrastructures to one another. As this model expands, competition will increasingly focus on who controls liquidity, settlement, and the movement of dollars between traditional and blockchain markets.