Magic Labs has agreed to sell its embedded wallet business to Payward in an asset transaction that will move the unit under Payward Services, allowing Magic Labs to concentrate on its newly launched Newton Protocol for onchain financial authorization.
The sale will transfer Magic Labs’ wallet customers to Payward Services after the deal closes, though the two companies will remain separate businesses. Magic Labs, which will rename itself Newton Labs following the transaction, did not disclose a purchase price or closing date.
The transaction gives Payward another customer-facing crypto infrastructure product after a series of acquisitions spanning trading, derivatives and payments. For Newton Labs, the divestment narrows a business that has long combined developer wallet tools with infrastructure ambitions, placing its future on software designed to impose institutional policies before an onchain transaction settles.
Magic Labs said it has created more than 60 million wallets since its 2018 founding and supports over 200,000 developers building consumer and institutional applications. Those figures make the wallet division a substantial addition for Payward Services, particularly in a market where embedded wallets allow applications to onboard users without requiring them to manage a separate browser extension or seed phrase from the outset.
Wallet customers will move to Payward Services
Embedded wallet providers typically supply the account-management layer inside crypto applications, allowing users to sign transactions, hold assets and interact with blockchains through an app’s existing interface. The model has become common in games, consumer apps and institutional products that want to reduce the friction of conventional self-custody onboarding.
Under the agreement, Payward Services will take responsibility for Magic Labs’ existing wallet customer base. Magic Labs said the transfer places the unit with a team focused on customer service, while the remaining company directs its resources toward Newton Protocol.
The deal does not combine the companies into a single corporate entity. Payward is acquiring the wallet business assets, while Newton Labs will continue operating independently under its new name. That distinction leaves Newton Protocol’s development, governance and commercial direction with the rebranded seller rather than its wallet buyer.
The lack of a disclosed valuation makes it difficult to assess how Payward priced the wallet business or whether the transaction includes performance-based terms. Magic Labs’ stated wallet and developer figures nevertheless point to an acquisition centered on distribution and enterprise relationships as much as wallet technology itself.
Newton Labs pivots to transaction authorization
Newton Labs said its post-sale strategy will center on Newton Protocol, which entered mainnet beta in June 2026. The company describes the protocol as an authorization layer for onchain finance, designed to apply compliance, security and risk policies before transactions reach final settlement on a blockchain.
That approach targets a persistent obstacle for institutions using public blockchain infrastructure. Once a transaction is submitted and confirmed, reversing it can be difficult or impossible. Newton Protocol is intended to put controls earlier in the process, potentially allowing organizations to screen transfers against rules involving identity, permissions, risk limits and compliance requirements.
Li, Newton Labs’ chief executive, said the restructured company will prioritize the protocol while the wallet operation moves to Payward Services. Its first stated product is VaultKit, a set of policies for institutional-grade vaults that can apply compliance, security, identity and risk logic within a transaction flow before settlement.
Newton Labs said the authorization framework is intended to support real-world assets, stablecoins and agentic commerce and finance. “Agentic” systems generally refer to software agents that can take actions under defined permissions, a category that creates particular demand for granular spending limits, approval thresholds and audit controls.
The company’s product direction places it closer to the operational layer of tokenized finance than the consumer wallet market it is leaving behind. Wallet software competes largely on onboarding, user experience and developer integrations. Authorization infrastructure competes on whether it can give financial institutions enough control to use onchain settlement without abandoning internal policy requirements.
Payward adds another piece to its infrastructure portfolio
The Magic Labs deal follows a rapid expansion by Payward across several parts of the crypto and trading market. Payward completed its acquisition of CFTC-licensed derivatives exchange Bitnomial in May, in a transaction valued at up to $550 million in cash and stock, according to the terms announced by the companies.
Before that, Payward announced a $600 million agreement to acquire Hong Kong-based stablecoin payments company Reap Technologies. It also acquired retail futures platform NinjaTrader for $1.5 billion in 2025.
Together, those transactions link retail futures accounts, regulated derivatives infrastructure, stablecoin payment capabilities and now embedded wallet technology. The Magic Labs purchase adds a product that can sit at the front end of crypto applications, where users create accounts and approve transactions, rather than solely at the venue where they trade.
That does not automatically mean Magic Labs wallet users will be moved into Payward’s other products. The announced terms only say customers will transition to Payward Services. Integrating a wallet business into a larger trading and payments group can require separate technical, contractual and regulatory decisions across jurisdictions.
For developers using Magic Labs’ tools, the immediate issue will be how Payward Services manages continuity in wallet APIs, support arrangements and product road maps after closing. For Newton Labs, the sale creates a cleaner test of whether policy-driven transaction authorization can become a core piece of institutional onchain infrastructure.
The transaction divides a company built around simplifying wallet access into two more specialized operations: Payward Services will inherit the user and developer wallet business, while Newton Labs will attempt to build controls for the higher-stakes transactions that follow.
Explore real-world asset tokenization trends shaping Newton Protocol’s future in this in-depth RWA guide for onchain finance builders.
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