Payward Has Spent 2 Billion USD Buying Its Way Beyond Kraken — and 60 Percent of Its Revenue No Longer Comes From Trading

Payward, the parent company of Kraken, has spent more than 2 billion USD on acquisitions to transform itself from a crypto exchange operator into a four-pillar financial platform, and its second-quarter results show the strategy beginning to pay off as non-trading revenue climbs to 60 percent of the business.

By Yasmin Al-Rashid | September 27, 2026

CoinDesk reported on September 26 that co-CEO Arjun Sethi now describes Payward as one financial platform built around a shared infrastructure stack, with trading through Kraken forming just one of four operating pillars alongside banking, asset management and Payward Services. The picture that emerges from the company’s financial disclosures is of a deliberate pivot away from the boom-and-bust economics of exchange fees toward diversified, regulated financial infrastructure.

The Hook: Trading Volume Fell, Revenue Rose

The second-quarter numbers explain the strategy. Payward reported 508 million USD in adjusted revenue, up 17 percent year over year, with adjusted EBITDA of 23 million USD. Total platform transaction volume actually fell 18 percent year over year to 310 billion USD as crypto spot activity weakened. Yet revenue grew anyway, because asset-based and other revenue reached 60 percent of the total, up from 55 percent a year earlier. Funded accounts hit a record 6.6 million, holding 40 billion USD in assets on Payward platforms.

That mix shift is the entire thesis. Traditional futures, equities and tokenized equities grew during the quarter even as spot crypto softened, and futures daily average revenue trades rose 8 percent. The company is increasingly earning money from custody, payments, settlement and services rather than depending on retail trading frenzy.

Buying Regulated Infrastructure Instead of Building It

The acquisition spree is what made that possible. Kraken agreed in March 2025 to acquire U.S. futures brokerage NinjaTrader for 1.5 billion USD, bringing traditional futures trading and its regulatory apparatus into the group. Payward followed with the acquisition of Bitnomial for up to 550 million USD in cash and stock, a deal completed May 1 that added a CFTC-regulated designated contract market, derivatives clearing organization and futures commission merchant, the first crypto-native U.S. platform to hold all three main derivatives registrations together. That infrastructure now supports regulated U.S. perpetual futures and spot margin products.

In September, Payward went further on-chain, announcing plans to offer perpetual futures built on Hyperliquid’s HIP-3 infrastructure to eligible U.S. clients, subject to regulatory approval. Under the proposed structure, Bitnomial would deploy, administer, clear and settle the contracts while NinjaTrader Clearing carries customer accounts, a notable marriage of decentralized trading technology and regulated clearing.

Tokenized Equities Reach Nasdaq and the LSE

The tokenized equities push has won Payward partnerships with two of the world’s most established exchange operators. On September 10, Nasdaq announced that Nasdaq Ventures would invest 100 million USD in Payward, valuing the company at 21 billion USD, while expanding collaboration on the Nasdaq Equity Token framework, which is expected to launch in the second quarter of 2027. Payward will provide technology for distribution, trading and post-trade functions for tokenized equities and longer trading hours.

The London Stock Exchange has separately partnered with Payward to list xStocks, tokenized representations of publicly traded shares and ETFs, on its forthcoming LSE 24 venue during 2027, subject to regulatory approval. Payward tightened its grip on that product line by acquiring Backed Finance, the developer of the tokenized securities platform behind xStocks. Sethi’s rationale for partnering rather than competing: traditional exchanges still provide regulatory and listing infrastructure built over decades. “Trust is their currency,” he told CoinDesk.

Selling the Plumbing to Everyone Else

The fourth pillar, Payward Services, is where the strategy becomes most interesting. The business packages Kraken’s internally built trading, custody, liquidity, funding, payments, compliance, risk management and settlement technology into APIs that banks, fintechs and brokers can integrate. At least 25 companies are already developing products on the infrastructure, and the unified Payward Services API has brought its first external partner live with integrations covering conversions, transfers, European equities and request-for-quote infrastructure.

Acquisitions keep feeding that stack. Payward closed its purchase of stablecoin payments company Reap in July, adding payments and card issuance, and agreed later that month to acquire Magic Labs’ wallet infrastructure business, which supports wallets used by around 60 million users. September brought further integrations covering Ledger hardware wallets, stablecoin card programs through Reap and Visa, on-chain xStocks yield and IPO access.

The company has kept its planned public listing on a longer timetable, having confidentially submitted a draft registration statement, and has kept that process separate from its expansion funding. But the direction is unmistakable. While rivals fight for spot trading market share, Payward is positioning itself as plumbing for the entire digital asset economy, regulated derivatives, tokenized stocks, payments and banking included. If the second-quarter mix shift continues, the Kraken brand may eventually be the smallest part of the empire it built.