Payward, the parent company of crypto platform Kraken, is raising new capital valued at $20 billion, according to two people with knowledge of the matter.
Kraken declined to comment on the increase.
The latest fundraising round comes as the company ramps up spending on acquisitions.
Most recently, the stablecoin-focused payments firm bought Reap for $600 million and digital asset derivatives platform Bitnomial for $550 million as it continues to scale up ahead of a planned IPO. Payward was valued at $20 billion in both transactions.
Its biggest deal came in 2025 with the $1.5 billion purchase of NinjaTrader, a US-based retail futures platform and CFTC-registered futures commission trader. The acquisition gave Kraken a major foothold in the US derivatives market, while expanding its reach to a broad base of active futures traders.
Payward said it confidentially filed a draft S-1 registration statement with the US Securities and Exchange Commission on Nov. 19, marking the first step toward a potential public listing.
CoinDesk reported in March that the company had put its IPO plans on hold amid adverse market conditions. Sources said the firm remains interested in going public, but likely only when market conditions improve.
Kraken is a US-based cryptocurrency exchange that lets users buy, sell and trade digital assets, including bitcoin and ether, using either fiat currencies or crypto. The company has expanded beyond spot trading into products such as derivatives, staking and custody, transforming itself into a broader full-service crypto platform.
In recent years, the Wyoming-based firm has adopted a more focused but increasingly strategic acquisition strategy aimed at expanding beyond core crypto trading into derivatives and broader multi-asset market infrastructure.
Deutsche Börse share register
Deutsche Börse (DB1), the owner of the Frankfurt Stock Exchange and Xetra, announced in April that it had taken a $200 million stake in Payward.
The shareholding, acquired through a secondary share sale, represented around 1.5% of the company. The transaction valued Payward at $13.3 billion, down from the roughly $20 billion valuation pegged to previous fundraising rounds. Payward did not receive any proceeds from the transaction.
Last November, Kraken said it had raised $800 million in two tranches to support its efforts to bring traditional financial products on-chain. The round included backing from investors such as Jane Street, DRW Venture Capital and Tribe Capital, while Citadel Securities later agreed to a separate strategic investment of $200 million at a valuation of $20 billion.
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