Kraken's parent company Payward lays off 150 people to advance business integration before the IPO

According to CoinDesk, Kraken's parent company Payward is laying off about 150 employees. This move is part of the company's optimization adjustments in preparation for its IPO, according to two insiders. A Kraken spokesperson stated in a statement: "We continuously evaluate and adjust our organizational structure to ensure we have the right structure and talent to achieve growth objectives and better serve our customers."

Meanwhile, Payward is seeking a new round of financing at a valuation of $20 billion to support its pre-IPO expansion strategy. Recently, the company completed a $600 million acquisition of stablecoin payment company Reap and a $550 million acquisition of digital asset derivatives platform Bitnomial. The previous largest acquisition occurred in 2025, when Payward acquired the U.S. retail futures platform NinjaTrader for $1.5 billion, which also holds a CFTC futures broker license.

Payward submitted a confidential S-1 registration statement draft to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on November 19, 2025, taking the initial steps toward going public. In March of this year, CoinDesk reported that the company had postponed its IPO plans due to a sluggish market environment, but insiders indicated that the company still plans to move forward with the IPO once market conditions improve. At the Consensus Miami conference, Payward and Kraken co-CEO Arjun Sethi stated that the exchange's IPO preparations are "80%" complete.