qerranews 
Kraken’s parent company, Payward, posted a strong financial performance in 2025, reporting a 33% year-over-year revenue increase as crypto trading activity rebounded and strategic acquisitions began paying off. The surge highlights renewed investor interest in digital assets and positions Kraken favorably as market watchers speculate about its potential public listing.
Strong Revenue Growth 2025
Payward reported $2.2 billion in revenue for 2025, up from $1.6 billion in 2024, driven by rising transaction volumes and diversified income streams. According to Kraken co-CEO Arjun Sethi, the growth reflected “broad-based performance across trading and asset-based businesses,” with total transaction volumes climbing 34% year over year.
Today, we’re announcing Payward’s FY 2025 financial results—and alongside them, a clearer articulation of Payward’s role as the unified infrastructure layer powering Kraken and a growing family of products, including @NinjaTrader, @breakoutprop , @xStocksFi, and future products… pic.twitter.com/qbLgG2AI3d
— Kraken (@krakenfx) February 3, 2026
The rebound comes amid improving crypto market sentiment, increased institutional participation, and higher retail trading activity across major digital asset platforms.
Trading And Asset Balance
Sethi emphasized that Payward’s revenues were “well balanced”, underscoring the company’s evolving business model. Approximately 47% of revenue came from trading-based activity, while 53% was generated from asset-based and other revenue streams, including custody, staking, and platform services.
This balance reduces dependence on pure trading fees, which can fluctuate sharply during market downturns, and gives Payward a more resilient revenue structure compared to earlier crypto exchange models.
Acquisitions Drive Diversification
A major contributor to Payward’s 2025 performance was its aggressive acquisition strategy, aimed at expanding beyond spot crypto trading. Sethi said the company drew inspiration from technology giants like Meta and Amazon, restructuring products so each serves a distinct customer segment.
In 2025, Payward acquired:
- NinjaTrader, a futures trading platform
- Breakout, a proprietary trading firm
- Small Exchange, a derivatives trading platform
- Capitalise.ai, a trading automation software provider
These acquisitions significantly diversified Payward’s offerings and expanded its reach into futures, derivatives, and automated trading markets.
Revenue Trades Surge 119%
According to Sethi, the acquisitions—particularly NinjaTrader and Breakout—helped drive a 119% increase in daily average revenue trades, highlighting strong user engagement across newly integrated platforms.
In addition, Payward acquired Backed last month, a firm operating in the tokenized stocks sector and the company behind the popular xStocks platform. The move signals Kraken’s growing interest in real-world asset tokenization and regulated financial products.
Platform Assets And Users
Payward’s platform metrics also showed notable improvement. Assets on the platform rose 11% to $48.2 billion, reflecting higher market valuations and increased deposits from users. Meanwhile, the number of funded accounts grew 50% to 5.7 million, underscoring Kraken’s expanding global user base.
The growth in both assets and accounts points to stronger customer retention and onboarding, even as competition among centralized exchanges remains intense.
IPO Speculation Builds
The report comes as investors closely watch for developments around Kraken’s potential initial public offering. Payward confidentially filed for an IPO in November, fueling speculation that the exchange could soon join the ranks of publicly listed crypto companies.
Strong revenue growth, diversified income streams, and expanding user metrics could strengthen Kraken’s appeal to public market investors, especially as regulatory clarity improves in key jurisdictions.
Long Term Strategy Focus
Looking ahead, Sethi said Payward is focused on long-term, risk-adjusted growth rather than maximizing individual performance metrics.
“Payward’s strategy is not driven by adding standalone products or chasing short-term cycles,” he said. “It is driven by compounding efficiency across a single system.”
The company plans to continue expanding across multiple asset classes and geographies, positioning itself as a multi-asset trading and financial services platform rather than a traditional crypto exchange.