Payward delays Kraken's IPO until 2027, as crypto market headwinds continue

Key Points

A quick overview of key points

Kraken's parent company Payward has postponed its listing plan to the second quarter of 2027 or later.

The company secretly submitted a draft S-1 registration statement with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission in November 2025.

Prior to filing, Payward completed a US$800 million financing at a US$20 billion valuation.

Adjusted revenue in the second quarter increased 17% year-on-year to US$508 million despite a decline in trading activity.

Several cryptocurrency companies, including Grayscale and Ledger, have also shelved their listing plans.

Kraken's parent company Payward delays IPO until the second quarter of 2027 at the earliest

Kraken's parent company Payward has extended its expected IPO schedule, with the earliest possible listing date currently being the second quarter of 2027. The delay was confirmed by two people familiar with the matter, who spoke on condition of anonymity due to the confidential nature of the discussion.

This is the second time this year that the company has postponed its public listing plan. Payward initially suspended its IPO plans in March this year, citing unfavorable cryptocurrency market dynamics and reduced trading activity as the main factors influencing the decision.

The growing list of cryptocurrency companies that have postponed listings

This delay makes Payward one of many cryptocurrency companies that have reconsidered their listing strategies. Companies such as Grayscale, Consensus and Ledger have also suspended IPO plans.

Ledger has previously hired major financial institutions such as Goldman Sachs, Jefferies and Barclays to advise on its potential listing, with a target valuation of approximately $4 billion. However, as market sentiment deteriorated, the hardware wallet provider shelved those plans before filing preliminary documents.

BitGo is one of the few cryptocurrency companies to complete its listing in 2026, but its share price has dropped 36% since it went public in January. This poor performance has led other private cryptocurrency companies to rethink the wisdom of listing in the current environment.

Expectations of a 2026 cryptocurrency IPO boom failed to materialize. Although the successful listings of Circle and Bullish in 2025 sparked optimism about more listed companies, subsequent price declines and disappointing post-IPO trading performance dampened institutional investor interest.

Financial Performance and Strategic Growth

In its second quarter results, Payward disclosed adjusted revenue of US$508 million, a 17% increase from the same period last year. The number of funded accounts on the platform increased by 42% to 6.6 million, and the total assets under management reached US$40 billion.

Despite these growth indicators, the platform's overall transaction volume fell 13% year-on-year to US$310 billion. Adjusted EBITDA shrank to $23 million as the company invested heavily in acquisitions and platform development.

While its IPO plans are in the balance, Payward is actively seeking expansion through strategic acquisitions. The company acquired retail futures trading platform NinjaTrader for US$1.5 billion in 2025. In addition, it acquired Bitnomial, a derivatives exchange regulated by the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission, for $550 million.

In July last year, Payward completed its acquisition of Reap Technologies, a Hong Kong stablecoin payment company, for US$600 million. The company has also reached an agreement to acquire Magic Labs 'wallet infrastructure business.

The acquisition of Backed Finance, which issues the underlying assets of Kraken's xStocks products, allows Payward to strengthen its oversight of the tokenized securities infrastructure.

Before secretly submitting a draft S-1 registration statement in November 2025, Payward completed a US$800 million financing at a US$20 billion valuation. Market maker Citadel Securities participated in the $200 million investment.

At an industry conference in April this year, Kraken co-CEO Arjun Sethi confirmed confidential documents filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. He emphasized that entering the open capital market was not the main motivation for the company's listing plan.

The actual timing of a listing in the second quarter of 2027 still depends on a number of factors, including regulatory approval from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, current market conditions, and Payward's final decision to move forward with a listing.