Kraken Parent Payward Pushes IPO Back to 2027 as Profits Collapse

Kraken's parent company, Payward Inc., has pushed its initial public offering back to the second quarter of 2027 at the earliest, according to a report citing two people familiar with the matter, first surfaced Wednesday and covered by crypto.news. Reuters said it could not independently confirm the report, and a Kraken spokesperson declined to comment on the listing plans.

Payward confidentially filed a draft S-1 registration statement with the Securities and Exchange Commission in November 2025. Because the filing is confidential, the company has never publicly disclosed a proposed share price, ticker, exchange or number of shares.

In March 2026, Payward paused its multibillion-dollar offering, citing adverse market conditions and softer trading volumes, according to Crypto Briefing. Co-CEO Arjun Sethi said in April, during an industry conference, that Payward was about 80% ready for an IPO and would revisit the listing when conditions improved. He also said at the time that access to public capital was not the company's main reason for going public, telling the conference that regulatory trust and long-term plans mattered more.

The numbers behind the delay

Payward's second-quarter 2026 results, reported in August, show why the company isn't rushing. Adjusted revenue hit $508 million, up 17% year-over-year, according to Crypto Briefing. But adjusted EBITDA cratered to $23 million, a 71% decline from the prior year.

Funded accounts still grew. Coinfomania reported the figure rose 42% to 6.6 million, with total assets on the platform reaching $40 billion. So Payward is bringing in more customers and more revenue, but keeping less of it. That's the classic exchange problem: revenue tracks trading volume, and trading volume tracks market enthusiasm, which has cooled.

In May 2026, Payward laid off roughly 150 employees, about 5% of its workforce, which the company framed as cost discipline tied to AI-driven efficiency gains, per Crypto Briefing.

The valuation math has also moved against Payward. In November 2025, the company raised $800 million at a $20 billion valuation, including a $200 million investment from Citadel Securities. Subsequent investment activity implies a valuation closer to $13.3 billion, Crypto Briefing reported, a roughly one-third haircut in less than a year.

Not the only one waiting

Payward isn't alone in stalling. Crypto.news reported that Grayscale, Consensys and Ledger have also postponed listing plans as companies wait for better market conditions. Ledger paused preparations for a U.S. listing that could have valued the hardware wallet maker at roughly $4 billion, despite having already hired Goldman Sachs, Jefferies and Barclays as advisers.

That's a sharp reversal from the mood in 2025, when Circle Internet Group and Bullish completed IPOs and expectations built for a wave of crypto listings in 2026. Weaker crypto prices, thinner trading volumes and disappointing share performance from some of those newly public companies changed the calculus, according to crypto.news.

Coinbase, the most prominent publicly traded crypto exchange, offers the cautionary tale. Since its direct listing in April 2021, Coinbase's revenue has swung wildly with bull and bear cycles, exactly the pattern now showing up in Payward's own EBITDA collapse.

A different bet: tokenized stocks with the LSE

While the IPO sits on ice, Payward is expanding elsewhere. On September 1, 2026, the London Stock Exchange announced a partnership with Payward to tokenize the 100 largest LSE-listed companies through the xStocks platform, with the first products expected within weeks, according to a comparison of 12 outlets compiled by NewsCord.

Each token will be backed 1:1 by the underlying stock and made accessible to investors in more than 110 countries. UK investors are excluded at launch. Payward said xStocks has already processed more than $40 billion in trading volume, with nearly $20 billion settled onchain across more than 200,000 holders, per NewsCord's sourcing.

LSE CEO Julia Hoggett said tokenization "has the potential to change how investors access, and how issuers use, financial markets," while stressing it must preserve "the trust, rights and role of regulated markets." Payward's chief commercial officer, Mark Greenberg, told the Financial Times that tokenized stock trading will launch on LSE's new night-time venue, LSE 24, starting in 2027, offering 24/5 trading Monday through Friday. That rollout still depends on regulatory approval for the broader LSE 24 listing.

Payward has sought, but has not obtained, a Federal Reserve master account through its Wyoming-chartered special purpose depository institution, Kraken Bank — an application that was denied by the Kansas City Fed and has been the subject of ongoing litigation. The company has nonetheless leaned on the effort to argue it's building regulated financial infrastructure rather than a speculative trading app. Whether that argument convinces public-market investors remains to be seen. The company has not committed to proceeding with an IPO, and even the Q2 2027 date depends on SEC review and market conditions.