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

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.

CoinDesk 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 CRCL$88.88·At close and CoinDesk’s owner Bullish BLSH$32.64·At close last year. Weaker crypto prices and trading volumes, coupled with poor aftermarket performance from some newly listed digital-asset companies, have dampened investor appetite and prompted several high-profile firms, including asset manager Grayscale, Ethereum software developer Consensys and hardware wallet maker Ledger, to postpone their plans.

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.