Payward, the company behind Kraken, and its asset management clients have bought an undisclosed amount of AAVE tokens. The purchase follows a larger proposed package from June that was never completed, and the two sides are exploring further collaboration.
Payward, the company behind crypto exchange Kraken, bought an undisclosed amount of AAVE tokens together with its asset management clients, according to an announcement made Thursday. The move extends Payward's push into asset management and decentralized finance, and the company and Aave are also exploring further collaboration.
The tokens were acquired through Digital Asset Special Investments I, LP, an investment fund affiliated with Payward. The fund's asset management clients also took part in the buying. No dollar figure or token count was attached to the announcement, and the deal involves tokens only, with no equity component.
This is not the first time the two sides have discussed a deal. Earlier talks, disclosed in June 2026, centered on 250,000 AAVE tokens and a 15% equity stake in Aave Group at a valuation of $385 million. That arrangement was ultimately not realized, and Aave founder Stani Kulechov publicly pushed back on claims that the offering undervalued the AAVE token.
The companies' operational ties go beyond investment talks. Kraken launched its DeFi Earn product in January 2026. Earlier in 2026, it also deployed a white-label instance of the Aave protocol on Ink, its Layer-2 network.
Because the amount is undisclosed, the scale of the purchase is impossible to judge.
Source: Crypto Briefing
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