Payward, Inc. today announced the completion of a $5 million Series A round of funding for its Kraken (https://www.kraken.com) division, the innovative digital exchange for Bitcoin, Ripple, Litecoin, Namecoin, Dogecoin, Ven and other digital currencies. The round was led by Hummingbird Ventures. Other investors included SecondMarket Barry Silbert's Bitcoin Opportunity Fund, and Trace Mayer, Bitcoin thought leader and angel investor.

At Kraken, foreign exchange markets meet Bitcoin on a secure, regulated platform where customers can trade digital currencies, and enjoy fast deposits and withdrawals enabled by a strategic partnership with German online bank Fidor AG.

'We're excited to get significant funding to grow the Kraken team, improve upon support and deal with the evolving regulatory hurdles globally,' said Jesse Powell, founder and CEO of Kraken. 'We're looking forward to forging strong bank partnerships in the US and elsewhere in the world, as we have in the EU, to further reduce friction for our growing international client base.'

With the rapid pace of financial innovation unleashed by Bitcoin, the United States is in dire need of a domestic digital currency exchange to be on an even playing field with the rest of the world. Although the United States is the largest Bitcoin market, the vast majority of Bitcoin liquidity is held elsewhere. Kraken aims to change that.

For more information about the digital exchange services offered by Kraken, please visit https://www.kraken.com.

About Payward, Inc.

Payward combines years of experience in the virtual goods and currency markets with a highly skilled engineering team and a host of carefully cultivated banking and finance relationships. Kraken (https://www.kraken.com), Payward's full-featured professional digital currency exchange and trading platform, offers advanced trading tools, a sophisticated user interface, robust technical security and full regulatory compliance to traders in digital currencies like Bitcoin, Ripple, Litecoin, Namecoin, Dogecoin, and Ven. Kraken publicly launched on Sept. 9, 2013, and is now the No. 1 Euro exchange in the world. Kraken attributes this success to its robust user interface, strict regulatory compliance and professional array of advanced order types, the result of two years of development. To find out more about services offered by Kraken, visit: https://www.kraken.com.