Payward and SGB Bring 24/7 Fiat Settlement to Crypto Markets

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• Payward has integrated Singapore Gulf Bank’s SGB Net for instant, round-the-clock institutional settlement.
• The rollout starts with U.S. dollars for select clients in eligible Asian and Gulf jurisdictions, with more currencies planned.
• SGB Net already processes more than $20 billion in fiat transactions per month.
• The model revives a capability once associated with SEN and Signet, but through a cross-border banking and trading network.

Kraken parent Payward is connecting its institutional trading infrastructure to Singapore Gulf Bank’s real-time clearing network, targeting one of crypto’s longest-running operational problems: markets trade continuously, but fiat money has traditionally moved according to banking schedules.

Under the partnership announced Oct. 5, Payward integrated SGB Net, allowing eligible institutional clients to settle transactions instantly at any hour. The service initially covers U.S. dollars for a limited client group, with additional currencies and customers planned. SGB

The arrangement also gives Singapore Gulf Bank access to Kraken Prime as another source of digital-asset liquidity for trades offered to its customers. SGB is licensed and regulated by the Central Bank of Bahrain and backed by Bahrain’s Mumtalakat and Singapore’s Whampoa Group. SGB

Crypto Rebuilds Its 24/7 Banking Layer

The concept has an important precedent.

Before the 2023 U.S. banking crisis, Silvergate Exchange Network (SEN) and Signature Bank’s Signet allowed institutional clients to move dollars internally around the clock. SEN enabled near-real-time transfers between participating Silvergate customers, while Signet provided 24/7 dollar settlement between Signature clients.

Both disappeared from their original banking environments in 2023. Silvergate voluntarily liquidated after severe deposit outflows, while Signature Bank was closed by regulators. The FDIC later retained Signet’s technology in receivership. Federal Reserve

SGB Net is not simply a replacement for either network. Its structure points toward a more geographically distributed version of the same institutional requirement.

Rather than building a closed dollar-transfer system around one U.S. crypto-focused bank, SGB is positioning its regulated banking infrastructure as a connection between trading venues, market makers and financial institutions across the Gulf and Asia.

SGB Net Is Already Processing $20B a Month

SGB launched the network in 2025 and says it now processes more than $20 billion in monthly fiat transactions.

Payward is not its first institutional integration. In March, digital-asset prime broker LTP connected to SGB Net to automate institutional fund flows and provide continuous access between fiat and digital-asset infrastructure.

The bank has continued building relationships around the Gulf’s regulated crypto market. On Oct. 4, one day before announcing the Payward agreement, SGB disclosed a separate partnership providing operational, client-money and virtual accounts to Bahrain-regulated crypto exchange Rain.

That sequence makes the Payward deal more than a bilateral integration. SGB is building a banking network around digital-asset companies that need fiat to move on the same timetable as their markets.

Why 24/7 Fiat Changes Institutional Trading

The practical advantage is capital mobility.

An institution can already trade Bitcoin or other digital assets during a weekend. The difficulty arises when dollars required for a trade sit elsewhere and cannot reach the trading venue until conventional payment infrastructure becomes available.

Continuous settlement reduces the amount of cash institutions may need to pre-position across multiple venues simply to guarantee access outside banking hours.

It can also shorten the interval between funding and execution, although the actual capital-efficiency benefit will depend on each client’s banking arrangements, limits and settlement structure.

The Gulf Is Becoming Part of Crypto’s Banking Infrastructure

There is also a geographic shift behind the agreement.

SEN and Signet concentrated always-on institutional dollar settlement inside U.S. banks. Payward’s new connection instead runs through a Bahrain-regulated institution targeting customers across Asia and the Gulf.

That does not make the systems directly equivalent. SEN was an internal transfer network for Silvergate customers, while the Payward-SGB structure connects a regulated bank’s clearing network with a separate institutional trading platform. The regulatory jurisdictions and counterparty structures are also different.

But the underlying demand has survived: institutions trading 24/7 markets want their cash available 24/7 as well.
SGB’s next expansion will show how far that model can travel. The initial Payward rollout remains limited to selected clients and U.S. dollars. Additional currencies, broader client eligibility and continued growth in SGB Net transaction volume will provide clearer evidence of whether the network can develop from a regional settlement connection into a larger institutional fiat layer.