Kraken IPO delayed until Q2 2027: report

Kraken parent Payward has postponed its planned initial public offering until as early as the second quarter of 2027 after market conditions disrupted its previous listing schedule.

Kraken IPO timeline moves into 2027

As per reports on Wednesday, citing two people familiar with the matter, Payward had pushed the offering into the second quarter of 2027 at the earliest.

The new timeline extends the IPO process that has already faced several delays. Payward initially prepared for a public debut after cryptocurrency companies returned to U.S. equity markets in 2025, but falling digital asset prices and weaker trading activity made that schedule harder to maintain.

Payward confidentially submitted a draft registration statement on Form S-1 to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission in November 2025. A confidential filing allows a company to begin the SEC review process without immediately publishing its financial statements and other disclosures.

Kraken co-CEO Arjun Sethi later confirmed the confidential filing during an industry conference in April. Sethi said at the time that access to public capital was not the company’s main reason for pursuing a listing, describing regulatory trust and its long-term plans as more important factors.

In March, Payward paused its multi-billion-dollar offering as difficult market conditions reduced demand for new crypto stocks. Reuters said it could not independently confirm the report, while a Kraken spokesperson declined to comment on the listing plans.

An IPO in the second quarter of 2027 would still depend on SEC review, market conditions and Payward’s final decision to proceed. Since its draft filing remains confidential, the company has not publicly disclosed a proposed share price, ticker, exchange, or number of shares for sale.

Payward entered the process with a $20 billion valuation

Shortly before submitting the draft S-1, Payward completed an $800 million financing package across two tranches. The transaction valued the company at $20 billion and supplied additional private capital before the proposed listing.

As crypto.news reported in November, Citadel Securities contributed $200 million through a strategic investment. The funding also supported Payward’s work in regulated derivatives, tokenized financial products and international markets.

Public-listing expectations had increased after Circle Internet Group and Bullish completed IPOs in 2025. Several other digital asset companies also began preparing offerings, raising expectations that the industry would produce another group of U.S. listings in 2026.

Weaker cryptocurrency prices, lower trading volumes, and poor share performance at some recently listed companies later reduced investor interest. Grayscale, Consensys, and Ledger also postponed their listing plans as companies waited for a more favorable market.

Ledger paused preparations for a U.S. listing that could have valued the hardware wallet company at about $4 billion. The company had hired Goldman Sachs, Jefferies, and Barclays as advisers but had not filed a draft S-1, according to a May report.

BitGo, which was identified in that report as the only crypto-native company to list during 2026 at the time, was trading 36% below its January IPO price. The decline added another data point for private crypto companies assessing demand from public-market investors.

Payward revenue rises while trading activity falls

Payward has continued expanding its operations while the listing remains on hold. Company results for the second quarter showed adjusted revenue of $508 million, up 17% from the same period in 2025.

Funded accounts increased 42% from a year earlier to 6.6 million, while assets held on the platform reached $40 billion. Asset-based and other revenue accounted for 60% of total adjusted revenue, according to Payward’s financial report.

Trading figures presented a less favorable picture. Total platform transaction volume dropped 13% year over year to $310 billion as crypto spot activity slowed, while adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization fell to $23 million.

First-quarter results had already shown how newer business lines were reducing Payward’s dependence on spot crypto trading. In May, the company reported $507 million in adjusted revenue, a 3% annual increase, even as Bitcoin fell 22% during the quarter and industry spot volume declined 38%.

Daily average revenue trades in futures rose 51% during the first quarter, supported by NinjaTrader, Breakout, and Bitnomial. Funded accounts stood at 6.1 million at the end of that period, compared with 6.6 million three months later.

Adjusted EBITDA was $18 million in the first quarter as Payward spent money on acquisitions, product development, and regulatory infrastructure. The company also reduced its workforce by about 150 employees in May, equal to roughly 5% of its staff, as part of a cost restructuring.

Kraken builds regulated U.S. derivatives business

Payward has used acquisitions and product launches to move into derivatives, tokenized stocks and payment services while its shares remain privately held.

The company acquired NinjaTrader, a U.S. retail futures platform, for $1.5 billion in 2025. Payward also bought Bitnomial, a CFTC-regulated derivatives exchange, in a $550 million transaction and added Breakout, a proprietary trading platform for qualified users.

Bitnomial gives Payward a regulated route for offering derivatives to eligible American customers. In August, Hyperliquid Labs and Payward entered advanced discussions about bringing selected Hyperliquid-linked perpetual futures to the United States through the platform, a recent report found.

Any products offered through Bitnomial would operate under rules enforced by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. Bitnomial Exchange is registered as a designated contract market, while NinjaTrader Clearing operates as a registered futures commission merchant under the Kraken Derivatives US name.

In tokenized equities, Payward acquired Backed Finance, the issuer behind Kraken’s xStocks products. The deal gave the company more control over the issuance and trading infrastructure used to offer blockchain-based representations of stocks and exchange-traded funds.

Payward also agreed in May to acquire Hong Kong-based payment company Reap Technologies for $600 million in cash and stock. The transaction, which valued Payward shares at the same $20 billion level established by its funding round, added stablecoin-based cross-border and commercial payment services to the company’s operations.