kraken

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.

According to official news, Kraken announced that its Kraken Pro will increase the maximum leverage for Bitcoin and Ethereum perpetual contracts from 50 times to 100 times, applicable to the PF_XBTUSD and PF_ETHUSD USD cash-settled perpetual contracts, with products continuing to support 24/7 trading.According to the announcement, 100 times leverage is currently available to international users in eligible regions without the need to migrate accounts or apply additionally; existing Kraken Pro contract users can use it directly. The leverage mechanism adopts a tiered model: for BTC contracts, the first $1 million nominal position can use up to 100 times leverage, while any amount above that will automatically drop to a lower leverage tier; for ETH contracts, the first $500,000 nominal position offers up to 100 times leverage. The platform emphasizes that the leverage adjustment is not a "one-size-fits-all" switch, but rather a dynamic tiered calculation as the position size increases.

According to Onchain Lens monitoring, after 6 years of silence, a certain whale deposited 1001 ETH into Kraken, worth 2.31 million dollars.The whale still holds 3000 ETH in 2 different wallets, worth 6.88 million dollars.

According to CoinDesk, Kraken announced that it will use Chainlink's cross-chain interoperability protocol CCIP, replacing LayerZero as the exclusive cross-chain infrastructure for its wrapped assets, covering kBTC and more wrapped assets in the future. This migration involves over $3 billion in TVL, following a $292 million LayerZero-related cross-chain attack incident that occurred in April. Kraken stated that the migration will cover networks such as Ink, Ethereum, Unichain, and Optimism. kBTC is set to launch in 2024, with a current market value of approximately $260 million. Coinbase had previously also chosen Chainlink CCIP as the sole cross-chain bridge solution for about $7 billion in wrapped tokens.

According to The Defiant, cryptocurrency exchange Kraken has announced the launch of the Flexline lending service, designed for crypto holders who cannot access traditional credit markets.It is reported that Flexline offers a fixed annual interest rate of 10%-25% and accepts cryptocurrencies as collateral, supporting scenarios such as operational funding needs and proof of funds for large transactions. The product aims to address the issue of crypto-native businesses and high-net-worth individuals having difficulty obtaining loans from traditional financial institutions using digital assets.

According to Decrypt, Kraken's parent company Payward has announced a strategic partnership with asset management giant Franklin Templeton to bring some traditional financial products (including tokenized stocks and yield products) to the blockchain network. The two parties will integrate Franklin Templeton's tokenized money market fund BENJI into the Kraken platform as collateral and cash management tools for institutional clients.Payward's xStocks framework (which has processed over $30 billion in transaction volume since its launch last year) will collaborate with Franklin Templeton to explore new on-chain actively managed products, making its investment strategies available to institutions and some retail investors in specific jurisdictions. Franklin Templeton has also recently advanced its crypto business division, Franklin Crypto, by acquiring the crypto investment firm 250 Digital.

According to informed sources, Payward, the parent company of the cryptocurrency platform Kraken, is conducting a new round of capital financing at a valuation of $20 billion, to which Kraken declined to comment.The company has recently significantly increased its merger and acquisition spending—acquiring the stablecoin-focused payment company Reap for $600 million and the digital asset derivatives platform Bitnomial for $550 million, both transactions conducted at a $20 billion valuation.Its largest transaction was the $1.5 billion acquisition of the U.S. retail futures platform and CFTC-registered futures commission merchant NinjaTrader in 2025, which provided Kraken with a significant foothold in the U.S. derivatives market.Regarding IPO progress, Payward secretly submitted an S-1 registration statement draft to the U.S. SEC on November 19, 2025. Although reports in March 2026 indicated that the company paused its IPO plans due to unfavorable market conditions, sources stated that the company still intends to go public, but may wait for market improvements.At last week's Consensus conference in Miami, Payward co-CEO Arjun Sethi stated that the trading platform is "80% ready" for an IPO.Additionally, Deutsche Börse (DB1) purchased approximately 1.5% of Payward's shares for $200 million through a secondary share sale in April 2026, valuing Payward at $13.3 billion (lower than the previous financing round's valuation of about $20 billion).In November 2025, Kraken completed an $800 million financing in two tranches to push traditional financial products onto the blockchain, with investors including Jane Street, DRW Venture Capital, and Tribe Capital. Subsequently, Citadel Securities also made a strategic investment of $200 million at a $20 billion valuation.

Market analysis reports show that Coinbase and Kraken together account for 22% of all AI citations in the cryptocurrency category, with Coinbase accounting for 13% and Kraken for 9%, leading by more than three times compared to other U.S. trading platforms.Gemini ranks third with 5.5%, Robinhood Crypto ranks fourth with 5%, and BlackRock's spot Bitcoin ETF IBIT ranks fifth with 4.5%, dominating questions related to "Bitcoin ETF." The analysis points out that the influence of hardware wallets in AI responses is diminishing; while Ledger and Trezor still dominate questions related to "best crypto wallets," AI is increasingly inclined to recommend regulated trading platform custody solutions for the question of "best crypto asset storage methods."The report believes that the "self-custody narrative" that emerged after the FTX incident is no longer the dominant framework cited by AI. Furthermore, AI is rapidly shaping the landscape of U.S. retail crypto financial brands. "When users ask ChatGPT where to buy Bitcoin, the platforms prioritized by AI will have the opportunity to define the industry landscape for the next decade."

According to BBX data, this week the outflow channels of cryptocurrency infrastructure and the forward-looking financial reports of mining companies are advancing on two fronts, with the core dynamics as follows:Kraken (parent company Payward, Inc.) and the global payment network MoneyGram announced the establishment of a global strategic partnership through PR Newswire on May 5. Kraken users can withdraw cash exchanged for cryptocurrency in hundreds of fiat currencies at nearly 500,000 MoneyGram physical locations covering over 100 countries; initially focusing on cryptocurrency outflows, with plans to expand to local bank deposits and cross-border remittance flows; Kraken is responsible for customer identity verification, while MoneyGram provides licensed remittance services and compliance frameworks. Kraken co-CEO Arjun Sethi confirmed in an interview with Fortune that the company's IPO progress is "close to 80%," having previously submitted its confidential S-1 filing to the SEC. Bloomberg estimates the current valuation at approximately $13.3 billion based on a $200 million equity investment from Deutsche Börse.MARA Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ: $MARA) officially announced on ir.mara.com on May 4 that its Q1 2026 financial report will be released after the market closes on May 11, with a conference call scheduled for 5:00 PM (ET); analyst consensus expects an EPS of approximately -$2.34 and revenue of about $184.2 million. As of the end of 2025, the company holds 53,822 BTC, with full-year revenue for 2025 at $907 million (up 38% year-on-year) and a hash rate of 66.4 EH/s; during Q1 2026, the price of BTC fell from about $87,000 to around $68,000, putting pressure on the mining company's total costs. The market will focus on the progress of its AI/HPC data center transformation and the rollout pace of the Starwood JV, which exceeds 1 gigawatt capacity.The U.S. Department of Labor released the April non-farm employment data on May 8, showing an increase of 115,000 jobs, nearly double the market expectation; Bitcoin maintained a range of $79,000---$80,000 after the data was released, with the market interpreting this "soft landing" signal as favorable for risk assets—an unheated job market means an increased probability of the Federal Reserve maintaining current interest rates, keeping the mid-term liquidity environment for cryptocurrency stable. The monthly net inflow for Bitcoin spot ETFs in April was approximately $2.44 billion, the strongest single month data of the year; April's monthly close rose by 16%, and if May's closing price remains above $76,000, it will confirm three consecutive months of positive monthly closes for Bitcoin, which Fundstrat founder Tom Lee defines as a "bear market ending signal."

According to Politico, Coinbase, Kraken, and Gemini proposed to lawmakers earlier this year to remove a provision in the digital asset bill that requires cryptocurrency trading platforms to only list "non-manipulable" digital assets. The three exchanges are concerned that this would make it more difficult to list small-cap tokens.This amendment occurred after the Senate Agriculture Committee voted to advance the bill in January. The CFTC has long required exchanges to "self-certify" that the product contracts they list are not easily manipulable, but cryptocurrency companies believe this standard does not apply to the spot crypto market. The three exchanges stated that they have been working with Congress for years to push for comprehensive federal regulation of the digital asset market. Coinbase's Federal Policy Director Robin Cook stated that they hope to ensure consumers are protected by standards suitable for spot trading.

According to Bloomberg, Kraken's parent company Payward Inc. has agreed to acquire Hong Kong-based Reap Technologies for $600 million in cash and stock. Reap Technologies is a provider focused on stablecoin cross-border payments and commercial payment services. Payward and Kraken co-CEO Arjun Sethi stated that the valuation of the stock issued by Payward in this transaction is $20 billion. This acquisition aims to expand into the Asian market.

According to The Block, Kraken has launched CFTC-regulated crypto spot margin trading services for U.S. retail users just days after its parent company acquired the Bitnomial derivatives platform.Such products have largely been unavailable to U.S. retail users, forcing them to turn to offshore platforms. Kraken stated that users can use their crypto assets as collateral for trading with up to 10 times leverage without having to sell them.This launch follows the announcement made on Monday that Kraken's parent company Payward has completed the acquisition of Bitnomial. Bitnomial is a Chicago-based crypto derivatives exchange that holds licenses as a matching entity, contract party, and clearinghouse issued by the CFTC.Payward stated that this acquisition will ultimately enable it to offer regulated spot margin, perpetual futures, and options products to U.S. users. This move also strengthens Kraken's position in regulated derivatives infrastructure in preparation for a potential public listing.Payward has submitted a confidential S-1 registration draft to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in November. The trading platform is also continuing to expand its institutional and derivatives business in the UK and Europe following its $1.5 billion acquisition of NinjaTrader in March 2025.

According to Whale Alert monitoring, an unknown wallet transferred 225,860,003 USDT to Kraken, worth approximately 225 million dollars.

According to statistics from the Web3 asset data platform RootData, the total disclosed financing amount in the crypto primary market in April 2026 is approximately $860 million. This month, a total of 55 financing events were disclosed (along with 5 mergers and acquisitions), which is similar to last month's 62 events, indicating stable overall activity.CeFi, infrastructure, and DeFi are the top three sectors in terms of financing amounts, with approximately $606 million (8 events), $105 million (14 events), and $90 million (19 events) respectively. Infrastructure had the highest frequency of activity this month with 14 events, as institutional attention continues to focus on foundational construction.The top three projects by financing amount are the Vietnamese CEX CAEX ($380 million, with investments from OKX Ventures and HashKey Capital), the global leading exchange Kraken ($200 million, strategic investment from Deutsche Bank), and the Layer1 project Pharos Network ($44 million in Series A). CAEX and Kraken together raised $580 million, accounting for about 67% of the total disclosed amount this month, indicating a continued significant concentration effect in the CeFi sector.The narrative of the prediction market continues to evolve, but the form is changing. This month, 8 prediction market-related projects received funding, all in angel or seed rounds ([XO Market](https://www.rootdata.com/zh/Projects/detail/XO Market?k=MTczOTA= "decentralized prediction market") $6 million, PUMPCADE multiple rounds totaling $6 million, [Atlasx Protocol](https://www.rootdata.com/zh/Projects/detail/Atlasx Protocol?k=MjQyNTA= "prediction market") $2 million, etc.). After last month's capital ignited the narrative of the prediction market, this sector is evolving from "single giant financing-driven" to "multi-project ecosystem construction."Kraken's "dual positioning" is the most noteworthy chain action this month: In the same month, Kraken acted both as a financing party (receiving a $200 million strategic investment from Deutsche Bank) and acquired the CFTC-licensed derivatives exchange Bitnomial for $550 million.In addition, 8 AI-related projects received funding in April, covering AI agents (Nava $8.3 million in seed round, AIW3.ai $2 million), AI infrastructure ([Cluster Protocol](https://www.rootdata.com/zh/Projects/detail/Cluster Protocol?k=MTIwMjc= "decentralized AI model computation verification protocol") $5 million), AI content creation (Oh $7.5 million in Series A), among other sub-directions. The narrative of AI and crypto integration has entered a stage of blossoming in multiple areas.GSR, Coinbase Ventures, L1D, Tether, Kosmos Ventures, and Animoca Brands are tied as the most active investors in April, each disclosing 3 investments.

Kraken co-CEO Arjun Sethi stated at the Consensus Miami conference that the preparations for KrakenIPO are about 80% complete, and the company has submitted an application to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, currently waiting for the right market window.Kraken also announced a partnership with MoneyGram, where both parties will collaborate on scenarios involving the exchange of crypto assets and cash to address the "last mile" cash access issue. MoneyGram currently has approximately 500,000 retail locations worldwide. Executives from both sides stated that stablecoins are expected to reduce costs and efficiency losses in payment systems, especially in regions with weaker financial infrastructure.