Kraken parent Payward delays IPO to second quarter of 2027 at earliest

The crypto exchange operator, which confidentially filed for a U.S. listing last November, had already put its IPO plans on hold amid difficult market conditions.

— Payward, the parent company of crypto exchange Kraken, is now targeting the second quarter of 2027 at the earliest for its long-awaited IPO, according to a source.

— The new timeline pushes the potential listing further out after Decryptnews reported in March that the company had frozen its IPO plans because of difficult market conditions.

— Payward confidentially filed a draft registration statement with the SEC in November 2025, shortly after raising $800 million at a $20 billion valuation.

Payward, the parent company of American crypto exchange Kraken, has delayed its widely anticipated initial public offering until next year, according to two people familiar with the matter.

The Wyoming-based company is not planning to go public until the second quarter of 2027 at the earliest, one of the people said, who spoke on condition of anonymity as the matter is private.

The delay extends an already lengthy wait for one of the crypto industry’s most closely watched public-market debuts.

Decryptnews reported in March that Payward had put its multibillion-dollar IPO plans on hold as difficult market conditions weighed on crypto prices, trading volumes and valuations. At the time, sources said the company remained interested in going public but was unlikely to proceed until conditions improved.

A representative for Kraken declined to comment.

The delay is another sign of the cooling market for crypto IPOs after the industry entered 2026 expecting a wave of public listings following the successful debuts of Circle

Payward confidentially filed a draft S-1 registration statement with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in November 2025 for a proposed offering of its common stock.

The filing came shortly after the company raised $800 million from investors at a $20 billion valuation, including a $200 million investment from Citadel Securities.

Since shelving the IPO, Payward has continued to expand beyond its core crypto exchange business, adding traditional and crypto derivatives, tokenized equities and payments infrastructure through a series of acquisitions and product launches.

The company reported adjusted revenue of $508 million for the second quarter, up 17% from a year earlier, while funded accounts rose 42% to 6.6 million. Assets on the platform stood at $40 billion.

Payward has also continued an acquisition spree. It completed its purchase of derivatives venue Bitnomial in May and closed its acquisition of stablecoin payments platform Reap in July. It subsequently agreed to acquire Magic Labs’ wallet infrastructure business.

The takeovers are part of a broader strategy to transform Kraken from a crypto exchange into a wider financial services platform spanning trading, payments and other products.

Decryptnews reported in May that Payward was raising fresh capital at a $20 billion valuation as the company stepped up spending on acquisitions.

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