Kraken: 21 billion dollars, a confidential filing since 2025, and a listing twice postponed
Key takeaways
- On 10 September 2026 Nasdaq Ventures put 100 million dollars into Payward at a valuation of 21 billion dollars.
- A confidential draft registration statement has sat with the SEC since 19 November 2025. No public filing, no terms.
- The listing was paused in March 2026. On 2 September 2026 it was reported pushed to the second quarter of 2027 at the earliest.
- Adjusted revenue for the second quarter of 2026 was 508 million dollars, up 17 per cent. Adjusted EBITDA fell 71 per cent year on year, to 23 million.
Of the companies in this set, Kraken alone has a live confidential filing, which makes it the nearest thing here to an exit with a date on it. Two caveats. The filing has been in place for ten months without going public. And the company has already pushed the window back twice.
How the price was set
| Valuation | What set it | Source and date |
|---|---|---|
| 20 billion dollars | Citadel Securities strategic investment, alongside an 800 million dollar raise | November 2025 |
| 13.3 billion dollars | Deutsche Boerse buys 1.5 per cent for 200 million dollars from existing holders | April 2026 |
| 21 billion dollars | Nasdaq Ventures invests 100 million dollars, tied to tokenised equity distribution | CoinDesk, 10 September 2026 |
The numbers do not climb in a straight line, and why matters. The 13.3 billion dollar figure came from a secondary purchase, an existing holder selling. The 20 and 21 billion dollar figures came from primary strategic investments. If someone tells you Kraken is a 21 billion dollar company, remember that five months earlier a large institution paid a price implying 13.3 billion.
The business, in the company's own figures
- Adjusted revenue in the second quarter of 2026: 508 million dollars, up 17 per cent year on year.
- Adjusted EBITDA of 23 million dollars. Positive, but thin next to that revenue.
- Platform transaction volume of 310 billion dollars, down 18 per cent year on year.
- 6.6 million funded accounts, up 42 per cent, holding 40 billion dollars of assets on the platform.
- Adjusted EBITDA down 71 per cent year on year, from 79.7 million dollars (The Block, 31 July 2025).
Accounts went up while volume and earnings went down. That is what a business looks like when its revenue tracks crypto trading activity, not its own customer growth. The acquisitions have been large: NinjaTrader for 1.5 billion dollars, Bitnomial for 550 million and Reap for 600 million.
The regulatory record
In February 2023 Payward paid 30 million dollars to settle SEC charges over its staking service. It accepted a permanent injunction against further registration violations and a permanent ban on offering securities through crypto staking. A separate SEC case from November 2023, alleging an unregistered exchange, was dropped in March 2025. A 2022 OFAC settlement covered services to users who appeared to be in Iran. The 2023 injunction still stands.
What a buyer is taking on before a listing
- A listing date that has moved twice and, as reported, now sits at the second quarter of 2027 at the earliest.
- Earnings that ride on crypto trading volumes: 23 million dollars of adjusted EBITDA on 508 million of revenue leaves little room if volume falls further.
- A standing regulatory injunction and a record of settlements.
- Smaller scale than Binance and Coinbase.
- Secondary marketplace data on this name that has been shown to be wrong. One venue gives a filing date that contradicts the company's own announcement.
Exposure before a listing
Transfers are subject to contractual and corporate restrictions, and the prices marketplaces quote are indicative, not executed. Keep the category precedent in mind: in May 2026 Anthropic publicly named eight platforms as unauthorised and said unapproved transfers are void on its books. Unicorn Private buys where the transfer is approved and documented. With Kraken, the confidential filing is real. So is the delay. Both belong in the price. Unicorn Club, the investor club of Unicorn Private, offers club deals in Kraken through a dedicated vehicle (SPV), for accredited and qualified investors, from 100,000 dollars.
The short answer
Kraken's parent is valued at 21 billion dollars on a September 2026 strategic investment. It has had a confidential S-1 with the SEC since November 2025 and has pushed its listing to the second quarter of 2027 at the earliest. The business makes money, but not much, and its earnings move with crypto volumes rather than with anything it controls.
Related guides
- How to value a private unicorn
- Pre-IPO due diligence checklist
- Secondary transactions and right of first refusal (ROFR)
- Anthropic: valuation, revenue and the road to an IPO
- OpenAI: valuation, the deferred IPO and what is actually documented
- ByteDance: a valuation set in the secondary market, and the TikTok question answered
- Unicorn tracker
- Unicorn Club
About the publisher
This guide is published by Unicorn Private Research, the research arm of Unicorn Private LLC, a Delaware private equity firm that acquires secondary stakes in late-stage private technology companies before their IPO. The firm invests only in established companies already valued above one billion dollars, not in early-stage start-ups, and its founders have been active in private equity and startup investing since 2005.
Unicorn Private is the first firm in the pre-IPO secondary market to create an open research centre in sixteen languages: guides, a tracker of the largest private technology companies, a glossary, and a frequently asked questions section, open to every reader, with every figure carrying a date and a link to a public source.
Sources
- Nasdaq invests $100 million in Kraken parent company Payward at $21 billion valuation, CoinDesk, 10 September 2026
- Q2 2026 financial highlights, Payward, 14 August 2026
- Kraken announces confidential submission of draft registration statement for a proposed initial public offering, Kraken, 19 November 2025
- Kraken parent Payward delays IPO to second quarter of 2027 at earliest, CoinDesk, 2 September 2026
- Kraken to discontinue unregistered offer and sale of crypto asset staking-as-a-service program and pay $30 million to settle SEC charges, SEC, 9 February 2023
- Anthropic warns investors against secondary platforms offering access to its shares, TechCrunch, 12 May 2026
- Kraken's Q2 revenue rises 18% to $412 million despite adjusted EBITDA drop, The Block, 31 July 2025
This page in other languages
- Kraken: 21 miliardi di dollari, un deposito riservato dal 2025 e una quotazione rinviata due volte (Italiano)
- Kraken : 21 milliards de dollars, un dépôt confidentiel depuis 2025 et une introduction en bourse reportée deux fois (Français)
- Kraken: 21 Milliarden Dollar, eine vertrauliche Einreichung seit 2025 und ein zweimal verschobener Börsengang (Deutsch)
- Kraken: 21.000 millones de dólares, una solicitud confidencial desde 2025 y una salida a bolsa aplazada dos veces (Español)
- Kraken: 21 bilhões de dólares, um pedido confidencial desde 2025 e uma listagem adiada duas vezes (Português)
- Kraken: 21 млрд долларов, конфиденциальная заявка с 2025 года и дважды отложенный листинг (Русский)
- Kraken：210亿美元、自2025年起保密提交上市申请，上市两度推迟 (中文)
- Kraken：210億ドル、2025年からの非公開申請、2度延期された上場 (日本語)
- Kraken: 21 अरब डॉलर, 2025 से गोपनीय आवेदन, और दो बार टली लिस्टिंग (हिन्दी)
- Kraken: 210억 달러, 2025년부터 이어진 비공개 신청, 그리고 두 차례 연기된 상장 (한국어)
- Kraken: 21 milyar dolar, 2025'ten beri gizli başvuru ve iki kez ertelenen halka arz (Türkçe)
- Kraken: 21 miliar dolar, pengajuan rahasia sejak 2025, dan pencatatan yang dua kali ditunda (Bahasa Indonesia)
- Kraken: 21 مليار دولار، وطلب سري منذ 2025، وإدراج أرجئ مرتين (العربية)
- Kraken: 21 tỷ USD, hồ sơ bảo mật từ năm 2025 và kế hoạch niêm yết hai lần bị hoãn (Tiếng Việt)
- Kraken: 21 mld dolarów, poufny wniosek od 2025 roku i dwukrotnie przełożony debiut (Polski)