KRAKacquisition Corp, a newly formed special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) with ties to cryptocurrency exchange Kraken, has filed an S-1 registration statement with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for a proposed $250 million initial public offering (IPO).
The SPAC plans to offer 25 million units at $10 each, with each unit consisting of one Class A ordinary share and one-fourth of one redeemable warrant. The company intends to list its units on the Nasdaq Global Market under the ticker symbol "KRAQU." Incorporated in July 2025 as a Cayman Islands exempted company, KRAKacquisition is a blank-check entity established to effect a merger or business combination with one or more operating businesses.
An affiliate of Kraken sponsors the company, and the filing highlights advantages from Kraken's participation, including deep ecosystem access, operating experience, and regulatory expertise. Key Kraken personnel are involved in the SPAC's management: Sahil Gupta, who leads Kraken's strategic initiatives, will serve as the SPAC's CFO, and Kraken's VP of strategy and corporate development, Robert Moore, will become a director upon completion of the offering.
However, the filing explicitly states that the SPAC "has not selected any specific business combination target and has not... engaged in any substantive discussions" with any potential target. It also clarifies that Kraken is not contractually obligated to execute a business combination. The SPAC's mission is to target companies in the digital asset ecosystem, aiming to accelerate growth for teams building bridges between decentralized finance (DeFi) and traditional finance.
This development runs parallel to Kraken's own reported plans for a direct IPO. In November, Kraken confidentially filed a draft S-1 with the SEC at a rumored $20 billion valuation. The exchange has been actively expanding, formalizing an acquisition of tokenized asset issuer Backed Finance and acquiring four other companies in 2025, including U.S. futures trading platform NinjaTrader for $1.5 billion.
