Kraken Parent Payward Revenue Hits $508M as Q2 Trading Volume Falls 18%

TLDR:

• Payward’s Q2 adjusted revenue rose 17% year over year to $508M even as platform volume fell 18% to $310B.
• Adjusted EBITDA dropped to $23M from about $80M a year earlier, cutting Payward’s margin to roughly 4.5%.
• Kraken funded accounts climbed 42% year over year to 6.6M, while assets held on the platform stayed near $40B.
• Asset-based and other revenue reached 60% of Q2 revenue, up from 55% a year earlier as Payward diversified.

Kraken parent Payward posted $508 million in adjusted revenue for the second quarter of 2026, even as platform transaction volume fell 18% year over year. Revenue rose 17% from roughly $433 million in Q2 2025 and was almost unchanged from the $507 million recorded during the first quarter.

However, profitability weakened sharply as adjusted EBITDA dropped to $23 million from about $80 million a year earlier. That left the Q2 adjusted EBITDA margin near 4.5%, compared with roughly 18% during the same period in 2025.

Sequentially, EBITDA improved from $18 million in Q1, showing a modest quarterly recovery despite the much larger year-over-year decline. The figures show a business generating more revenue from a broader product mix while lower trading activity and expansion costs continue pressuring earnings.

Payward Revenue Rises 17% as Q2 Trading Volume Falls 18%

While revenue increased, total platform transaction volume declined to $310 billion during Q2. That represented an 18% year-over-year drop and a roughly 13% decline from $357 billion in the first quarter.

Despite the weaker trading environment, Kraken said its crypto spot market share increased for a third consecutive quarter. At the same time, activity across traditional futures, equities and tokenized equities expanded, while futures Daily Average Revenue Trades rose 8% year over year.

Customer growth also remained strong despite the decline in transaction volume. Funded accounts reached 6.6 million, representing a 42% increase from a year earlier and rising from 6.1 million at the end of Q1.

Meanwhile, assets held on the platform remained near $40 billion despite weaker market conditions and lower trading activity. Payward also reported $65 billion in “Real Assets on Platform,” which measures customer flows while holding asset prices constant.

That figure increased 48% year over year. As a result, the data showed that underlying customer asset flows continued growing even as market prices softened and trading intensity declined.

Kraken Expands Revenue Mix as Funded Accounts Reach 6.6M

The quarter also showed a clear change in where revenue is coming from. Asset-based and other revenue represented 60% of total revenue in Q2, compared with 55% one year earlier.

That means most revenue now comes from assets and services rather than transaction-based activity. Payward has expanded beyond spot crypto trading through derivatives, equities, tokenized assets, payments and financial infrastructure.

The company acquired NinjaTrader in 2025 and completed its acquisition of Bitnomial on May 1, 2026. That deal added a CFTC-regulated U.S. derivatives stack covering brokerage, exchange and clearing infrastructure.

The group has also expanded xStocks and developed Payward Services for trading, payments and tokenized-asset infrastructure. Its DeFi Earn Bitcoin Vault had attracted approximately $400 million in deposits by the time of the Q2 update.

Meanwhile, Payward’s public-listing plans remained delayed after its confidential U.S. IPO filing in November 2025. The company had been valued at $20 billion before reports in March said the listing was put on hold.

For Q2, the central contrast was clear: revenue and funded accounts grew, while platform trading volume and EBITDA remained well below last year’s levels.

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