Payward and Singapore Gulf Bank launch 24/7 dollar settlement for institutional crypto clients

Payward, the financial infrastructure company behind Kraken, has integrated Singapore Gulf Bank’s real-time clearing network to give select institutional clients around-the-clock US dollar settlement for digital-asset transactions. The service, announced on 5 October, initially covers clients in eligible Asian and Gulf region jurisdictions, with additional currencies and client groups planned over time.

The partnership targets a structural friction that Payward’s chief commercial officer Mark Greenberg described plainly: exchanges, payment providers, over-the-counter desks, and fintechs all hit the same ceiling when banking hours end, even though crypto markets do not. Through SGB Net, clients depositing funds with Payward can deploy them immediately rather than waiting for the next business day. SGB Net, which launched in 2025, handles more than $20 billion in fiat transactions monthly.

The deal extends Payward’s ambitions beyond Kraken’s exchange business into the broader infrastructure layer connecting trading, custody, payments, and banking. It comes shortly after reports that BNY is in discussions with Payward over a potential arrangement spanning digital assets, custody, trading, and payments. The firms did not disclose the number of clients in the initial rollout or transaction volumes. For Singapore Gulf Bank, linking settlement to Kraken Prime’s liquidity gives institutional counterparties a path to move cash and trade without waiting for conventional banking windows to reopen.