Payward, the parent of crypto exchange Kraken, reported adjusted quarterly profit of $23 million on Friday, a 71% drop from a year earlier, even as revenue rose 17%.
Key Points:
- Payward's adjusted pretax earnings fell to $23 million in the second quarter, down from $79.7 million a year earlier.
- Adjusted revenue rose 17% to $508 million, while rival Coinbase saw revenue fall 19% over the same three months.
- The company has kept buying businesses through the downturn and has not rescheduled its paused stock market listing.
Payward Profit Falls While Revenue Climbs
The company disclosed the figures in a shareholder letter that Bloomberg reported, and in a quarterly release covering the second quarter issued the same day. Adjusted pretax earnings came in at $23 million for the three months ended Jun. 30, down from $79.7 million in the same period last year. Adjusted revenue reached $508 million.
Trading volume told a different story. Total platform transaction volume slipped to $310 billion as spot activity cooled industrywide, while funded accounts climbed 42% to a record 6.6 million and platform assets held at $40 billion.
Its largest rival moved the other way. Coinbase posted revenue of $1.22 billion for the same three months, a 19% decline from a year earlier, alongside a net loss of $359.5 million. Most of that loss traced to falling values of the crypto the exchange holds on its own balance sheet rather than to weaker operations.
Also Read: Tether Clears First Full Audit With $6.81B Reserve Cushion Verified
Arjun Sethi Defends Payward Acquisition Spending
Co-CEO Arjun Sethi framed the quarter as a bet on scale. He said three forces are reshaping global markets, among them "convergence across asset classes" and the automation of market participation, and tied the results to building one platform instead of separate products.
Sethi has not slowed the spending. Payward paid $1.5 billion for futures broker NinjaTrader in 2025, then closed a deal worth up to $550 million for derivatives venue Bitnomial on May 1. It completed a purchase of stablecoin payments firm Reap on Jul. 1 for up to $600 million, following earlier deals for tokenization firm Backed and token manager Magna.
Those acquisitions have reshaped the revenue mix, lifting asset-based and other income to 60% of the total from 55% a year earlier, a move away from trading fees. Outsiders cannot check that claim, because Payward stays private and its adjusted figures carry no outside sign off, unlike the accounts Coinbase files quarterly with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
Kraken IPO Plans Remain On Hold
The listing remains on hold. Payward filed a confidential draft S-1 with the regulator on Nov. 19, 2025, paused the process in March as markets weakened, then cut about 150 jobs in May, roughly 5% of its workforce. No new timeline has been set, which leaves investors who backed a $20 billion valuation last November waiting for audited numbers that only a public offering would force into view.
Read Next: iPhone 18 Pro Will Be Apple's Cheapest Model At A Possible $1,199 Price
