Crypto exchange Kraken indicated it remains on course for an initial public offering despite reports last month that the plan had been paused. Kraken confidentially filed for an IPO with the US Securities and Exchange Commission in November, though an unconfirmed March report suggested the effort might have been frozen.
Asked at the Semafor World Economy 2026 conference whether “there are plans to take Kraken public soon,” co-CEO Arjun Sethi confirmed the company had “confidentially filed,” declining to address the reported pause directly. When asked if that was news, Sethi replied, “I believe that’s news.”
Cointelegraph sought confirmation from Kraken about whether the IPO is actively being pursued or delayed but did not receive an immediate response.
Sethi’s remarks came as Deutsche Börse Group announced a $200 million investment in Kraken’s parent company, Payward, for a 1.5% fully diluted stake. The deal values Payward at $13.3 billion, down from a $20 billion valuation reported in November. Kraken said the Deutsche Börse investment is intended to bring crypto and traditional finance closer together as “a single, cohesive infrastructure for institutional clients” rather than as parallel systems.
Speaking more broadly about going public, Sethi downplayed the idea that recent policy developments in Washington would determine the timing of an IPO. “If you live day by day, quarter by quarter, these things are meaningful,” he said. “But if you’re thinking about your company three, five, 10 or 20 years out, none of this is meaningful. It just doesn’t matter.”
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