How Did Payward Grow Despite Weaker Crypto Trading?
Kraken parent Payward reported second-quarter adjusted revenue of $508 million, up 17% from a year earlier, as growth outside traditional cryptocurrency trading helped offset weaker spot market activity.
The company remained profitable on an adjusted basis, posting adjusted EBITDA of $23 million for the quarter ended June 30. The results show Payward generating higher revenue even as total platform transaction volume fell 13% year over year to $310 billion.
Management said the transaction mix increasingly included equities and tokenized equities, while Kraken gained crypto spot market share for a third consecutive quarter. The combination suggests that lower industry-wide spot activity did not translate directly into weaker revenue for the company.
Payward’s revenue mix also became less dependent on transactions. Asset-based and other revenue accounted for 60% of total revenue, up from 55% a year earlier. That category gives the company a larger source of income outside trading fees, which can fluctuate sharply with crypto market volumes and volatility.
Funded accounts increased 42% to 6.6 million, while assets held on the platform reached $40 billion. Payward cited stronger activity in the European Economic Area following Kraken’s authorization under the European Union’s Markets in Crypto-Assets regulation.
Why Does Revenue Diversification Matter For Kraken?
Kraken has been expanding beyond its original cryptocurrency exchange business into equities, derivatives, payments and infrastructure. The second-quarter figures offer evidence that those additional businesses are becoming more important to the company’s financial performance.
“Three forces are rearranging global markets: convergence across asset classes, the onshoring of activity into regulated venues, and the automation of market participation,” Payward co-CEO Arjun Sethi said.
Sethi linked the results to the company’s strategy of building a single platform rather than operating separate products. That approach could allow Payward to serve the same customer across crypto, equities, derivatives and other financial products while reducing its dependence on any single source of trading activity.
The diversification is particularly relevant during periods when cryptocurrency spot volumes decline. Exchange businesses can generate strong revenue when speculative activity rises, but trading fees can fall quickly during quieter markets. A larger contribution from asset-based services and other products can make revenue less sensitive to short-term changes in crypto turnover.
Investor Takeaway
Payward’s second-quarter results strengthen the case that Kraken is becoming less dependent on crypto spot trading. That matters ahead of a potential IPO because investors are likely to focus on whether revenue can remain resilient when cryptocurrency trading activity weakens.
How Are Acquisitions Expanding Payward’s Business?
Payward continued to use acquisitions to add regulated trading and financial infrastructure. The company completed its purchase of derivatives venue Bitnomial on May 1, giving it a U.S. derivatives business operating within a Commodity Futures Trading Commission-regulated structure.
The company then completed its acquisition of stablecoin payments platform Reap on July 1. Later that month, on July 27, Payward agreed to acquire Magic Labs’ wallet infrastructure business, adding embedded wallet technology to its business-to-business services.
Together, the transactions expand Payward into areas that can generate revenue outside conventional spot crypto trading. Derivatives can deepen engagement with active and institutional traders, while stablecoin payments and wallet infrastructure offer exposure to transaction and infrastructure demand that does not depend entirely on token price speculation.
The strategy also puts Payward in competition with exchanges and fintech companies seeking to combine trading, custody, payments and infrastructure under one platform.
What Do The Results Mean For Payward’s IPO Plans?
The stronger revenue mix arrives while Payward’s path to the public markets remains unsettled. The company confidentially filed a draft S-1 registration statement with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Nov. 19, 2025.
Payward paused its listing plans in March because of market conditions and publicly confirmed in April that it still intended to pursue an IPO. It has not announced a new timetable. The company was valued at $20 billion in a November 2025 funding round.
Payward reported $507 million in adjusted revenue in the first quarter and $2.2 billion for full-year 2025. Second-quarter adjusted revenue of $508 million therefore remained almost unchanged sequentially while rising from the prior-year period.
For a future IPO, the composition of that revenue may be as important as its absolute level. Public-market investors would have to assess whether Payward can produce consistent earnings across different crypto cycles rather than relying primarily on bursts of trading activity.
The second-quarter results provide some support for that argument: transaction volume declined, yet revenue increased year over year, funded accounts expanded and non-transaction businesses took a larger share of revenue. The next question is whether Payward can continue that pattern while integrating its acquisitions and waiting for market conditions that could reopen its path to a listing.