Payward, the parent company of crypto exchange Kraken, reported a 33% increase in revenue in 2025 as rising market activity and strategic acquisitions lifted transaction volumes and diversified income. Revenue climbed to $2.2 billion, up from $1.6 billion a year earlier, supported by a 34% jump in total transaction volume to $2 trillion, according to a company report released Tuesday.
Kraken co-CEO Arjun Sethi said Payward’s revenue mix was “well balanced,” with roughly 47% derived from trading activity and 53% coming from asset-based and other revenue sources. The results come as investors closely monitor the company’s path toward a potential public listing after Payward confidentially filed for an initial public offering in November.
Acquisitions Broaden Revenue Base
Payward attributed part of its growth to an active acquisition strategy aimed at expanding beyond spot crypto trading. In 2025, the company acquired futures platform NinjaTrader, proprietary trading firm Breakout, derivatives venue Small Exchange, and trading automation provider Capitalise.ai. These additions were intended to segment products more clearly by customer type and trading strategy, an approach Sethi said was influenced by large technology firms that operate multiple specialized platforms within a single ecosystem.
The acquisitions, particularly NinjaTrader and Breakout, contributed to a 119% increase in daily average revenue trades, according to the report. More recently, Payward acquired Backed, a firm operating in the tokenized equities space and supporting the xStocks platform, signaling a continued push into tokenized and multi-asset offerings.
Beyond revenue, Payward reported steady balance sheet and user growth. Assets held on the platform increased 11% year over year to $48.2 billion, while the number of funded accounts rose 50% to 5.7 million. The figures suggest that higher activity was accompanied by a broader expansion of the customer base rather than reliance on a narrow group of high-volume traders.
Positioning Ahead of Public Markets
Sethi said Payward’s strategy prioritizes long-term efficiency and risk-adjusted growth rather than maximizing individual performance metrics. He emphasized that the company is focused on scaling throughput across asset classes and geographies, rather than chasing short-term market cycles or launching isolated products.
The results place Payward among a group of large crypto firms seeking to demonstrate earnings resilience and diversified revenue as regulatory scrutiny increases and public market investors demand clearer business fundamentals. As crypto trading volumes rebounded in parts of 2025, exchanges with broader product suites and institutional reach have been better positioned to capture activity.
For Payward, the combination of higher volumes, asset-based income, and acquisitions strengthens its financial profile at a time when the industry is consolidating and capital markets remain selective about crypto exposure.