Payward, the parent company of crypto exchange Kraken, reported a sharp increase in revenue in 2025 as higher trading activity and a string of acquisitions helped diversify its income streams.
The privately held firm said revenue rose 33% year over year to $2.2 billion, up from $1.6 billion in 2024, as total transaction volumes climbed and more users funded accounts on the platform. The update comes as market participants closely track Kraken’s potential entry into public markets.
Trading volumes and asset income both contribute
According to comments from Kraken co-CEO Arjun Sethi, Payward’s growth was not driven by a single business line. About 47% of revenue came from trading-related activity, while 53% was generated from asset-based and other services, reflecting a more balanced earnings mix.
Total transaction volumes across the platform rose 34% to $2 trillion over the year, benefiting from increased participation as crypto market conditions improved.
Payward also reported that assets held on the platform increased 11% to $48.2 billion, while the number of funded accounts jumped 50% to 5.7 million, signaling broader user engagement rather than isolated spikes in trading.
Acquisitions reshape Payward’s product mix
A major contributor to the revenue increase was Payward’s acquisition strategy. Throughout 2025, the company expanded beyond spot crypto trading into derivatives, automation, and professional trading tools.
The firm acquired futures brokerage NinjaTrader, proprietary trading firm Breakout, derivatives venue Small Exchange, and trading automation provider Capitalise.ai. More recently, Payward purchased Backed, a firm active in tokenized equities and the operator behind the xStocks platform.
Sethi said these additions, particularly NinjaTrader and Breakout, helped drive a 119% increase in daily average revenue trades, highlighting the impact of bringing higher-frequency and professional traders onto the platform.
Preparing for scale ahead of a potential IPO
The results arrive as investors watch for progress on Kraken’s long-anticipated public listing. Payward confidentially filed for an initial public offering in November, though no timeline has been announced.
Sethi said the company has drawn lessons from large technology firms such as Meta and Amazon, reorganizing its offerings so that individual products are tailored to specific customer segments rather than bundled into a single interface.
That approach, he said, is designed to increase usage depth while maintaining operational efficiency across markets.
Focus shifts to long-term throughput, not short-term cycles
Looking ahead, Payward signaled that it is prioritizing sustainability over headline metrics. Management said the goal is to maximize long-run, risk-adjusted throughput across multiple asset classes and geographies, rather than optimizing for revenue or volume in isolation.
Sethi added that the strategy avoids chasing short-term market cycles, instead focusing on compounding efficiency across a unified system as Kraken expands its footprint beyond traditional crypto trading.
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