Kraken indicated it is still moving toward an initial public offering after earlier reports suggested the process had been paused. The exchange confidentially filed an IPO registration with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission in November, though an unconfirmed report in March said the effort may 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,” but he declined to comment directly on reports the initiative had been paused. When pressed on whether the confidential filing was new information, Sethi replied, “I believe that’s news.”
Cointelegraph sought direct confirmation from Kraken on whether the IPO is actively proceeding or paused but had not received an immediate response.
Sethi’s comments came as Deutsche Börse Group announced a $200 million investment in Kraken’s parent company, Payward, purchasing a 1.5% fully diluted stake. The transaction values Payward at $13.3 billion, down from a roughly $20 billion valuation reported in November. Kraken said the investment is designed to help integrate crypto and traditional finance into “a single, cohesive infrastructure for institutional clients,” rather than maintaining them as separate systems.
On whether developments in Washington would drive the timing of a public offering, Sethi suggested short-term policy shifts are not the key determinant. “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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