TL;DR:
- Payward agrees to acquire Magic Labs’ embedded wallet business through an asset sale deal.
- Magic Labs has accumulated over 60 million created wallets and support for 200,000 developers since its founding in 2018.
- The selling firm restructures under the Newton Labs brand to focus on the development of the Newton Protocol authorization layer.
Payward, parent company of cryptocurrency exchange Kraken, has reached a definitive agreement to acquire Magic Labs’ embedded wallet business unit. Through this asset transaction, the firm consolidates its Payward Services infrastructure focused on Web3 services for developers and institutional clients.
Restructuring of Magic Labs toward Newton Protocol
According to the terms of the operation, Magic Labs and Payward will remain separate legal entities. Users of the wallet infrastructure will transition to being served by Payward Services, while the remaining structure of Magic Labs will operate commercially under the name Newton Labs.
Since its inception in 2018, Magic Labs’ embedded wallet technology has supported the issuance of more than 60 million digital wallets. The acquired division constitutes the technical core that enables more than 200,000 developers to incorporate frictionless custody features into consumer and institutional applications.
Following the transfer of the operational wallet business, Newton Labs will exclusively focus its activity on the Newton Protocol, an authorization layer designed to enforce compliance, security, and risk management policies prior to onchain transaction settlement. The network reached its mainnet beta testing phase in June 2026, formalizing the group’s transition into a pure-play provider of decentralized infrastructure.
The first product launched on this protocol is VaultKit, a modular tool tailored for institutional-grade vaults. Official information from the company indicates that the system is designed to execute pre-settlement rules over real-world assets (RWA), stablecoins, and automated finance powered by smart agents.
Consolidation of Payward’s Infrastructure Ecosystem
This acquisition aligns with a series of strategic deals executed by Payward to expand its corporate offering. During May 2026, the parent company finalized the purchase of CFTC-licensed derivatives exchange Bitnomial for up to $550 million in cash and stock. This transaction was preceded by a $600 million agreement to acquire Reap Technologies, a Hong Kong-based firm specializing in stablecoin payments.
Previously, in 2025, the company completed the acquisition of retail futures trading platform NinjaTrader for $1.5 billion. According to industry reports, these moves are part of a vertical consolidation strategy that integrates spot operations, derivatives markets, and wallet infrastructure for the crypto ecosystem.
The transition of the wallet service to Payward Services is scheduled to be formally finalized upon closing standard transactional conditions.
