Coinbase · CoinDesk
Kraken’s parent Payward is betting billions on becoming financial infrastructure, not just a crypto exchange
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Kraken spent most of its 15 years building a crypto exchange.
Key facts
- Kraken has about 6.6 million funded accounts holding between $40 billion and $50 billion of assets, according to Sethi, across more than 190 countries and territories
- Payward reported $508 million in adjusted revenue for the second quarter of 2026, marking a 17% increase year-over-year
- Nasdaq, for example, agreed this month to invest $100 million in Payward while expanding its work on Nasdaq Equity Tokens and market surveillance technology
- Payward confidentially filed for an IPO in November 2025, though earlier this month that it does not plan to go public before the second quarter of 2027 at the earliest
Summary
Payward is unifying trading, banking, asset management and institutional services on a common infrastructure stack. The Kraken parent builds products internally, acquires capabilities that would take too long to develop and partners with established institutions. Sethi said Payward is profitable and in no rush to pursue an IPO as it expands its platform. Payward, its Wyoming-based parent company, spent billions on acquisitions that expanded its reach into futures and derivatives, pushed into tokenized stocks, and pursued additional banking capabilities in the U.S. and Europe. The moves are part of a bigger goal to turn Payward into a unified financial platform where trading, banking, asset management and services for other businesses can operate under the same infrastructure.