Kraken Revenue Tops $507m As Derivatives Surge

Kraken revenue rose 3% year-on-year to $507m in Q1 2026 as futures trading jumped 51%, Payward said Monday.

Payward, Kraken’s Wyoming-based parent company, said in a Monday press release that it generated $507 million in Q1 2026 adjusted revenue, up 3% from the same quarter a year earlier. Bitcoin fell 22% during the quarter and industry-wide spot trading volume dropped 38%, yet Payward’s diversified platform cushioned the decline.

A year earlier, Payward had reported $492 million in Q1 2025 adjusted revenue, making the 3% year-on-year gain notable given the steeper market downturn this cycle.

Co-CEO Arjun Sethi said in the release: “Where others pulled back, we leaned in.” Growth in futures and newer business lines offset weakness in core crypto markets, with Kraken’s spot market share rising to 5.2% in March from roughly 3.5% in mid-2025.

Rival platforms reported sharper declines in trading revenue over the same period. Payward attributed its resilience to its stronger institutional business and growing derivatives offering, built partly through its $550 million acquisition of CFTC-licensed platform Bitnomial, which crypto.news covered when the deal completed on May 4.

Total platform transaction volume reached $357 billion in Q1, while funded accounts rose 47% year-on-year to 6.1 million and assets on platform reached $40 billion.

Adjusted EBITDA fell to $18 million as Payward continued investing in acquisitions including tokenization platform Backed, token management firm Magna, Bitnomial, and payments company Reap.

Crypto.news reported that non-trading revenue sources including custody, payments, and financing accounted for 53% of Payward’s 2025 total, a structural shift that reduces dependence on volatile trading volumes.

What Payward’s IPO delay means

Payward filed its draft S-1 with the SEC confidentially in November 2025 but paused the process in March, citing market conditions. Sources indicate a public listing may slip to 2027. The exchange also cut approximately 150 employees in May, attributing the reductions to AI-driven operational efficiencies, representing roughly 5% of its total workforce.

Payward’s M&A push positions it as the most comprehensively regulated crypto derivatives platform in the US. Crypto.news documented how the Bitnomial deal and Deutsche Börse’s $200 million stake established Payward as a regulated hub for digital asset futures and options inside the US, with its IPO filing remaining active.