Payward, the parent company of cryptocurrency exchange Kraken, has postponed its planned initial public offering until at least the second quarter of 2027, according to sources cited by CoinDesk and commentary from WuBlockchain. The delay marks the company's second in six months after it confidentially filed a draft S-1 registration with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission in November 2025 and paused those plans in March.
A representative for Payward declined to comment on the record. The decision reflects weak crypto prices and declining trading volumes across the industry, as well as disappointing aftermarket performance among recently listed digital-asset companies that has cooled investor appetite for new listings.
Bitcoin is currently trading around $77,000, down roughly 39% from its all-time high of about $126,000 in October. The slide has been echoed in crypto-linked equities: BitGo listed on the NYSE in January at $18 per share and now trades near $6.86; Bullish reached a high near $75 after more than doubling on its debut but has fallen back to around $33, close to its $37 IPO price; Circle remains above its $31 IPO price at roughly $89 but has pulled back sharply from its high; and Coinbase trades near $175, down more than 56% from a 52-week high of $402. Grayscale, Consensys, and Ledger have also postponed their own IPO plans.
Despite the delay, Payward's operational metrics remain strong. The company reported $508 million in adjusted revenue for the second quarter of 2026, a 17% year-over-year increase, along with 6.6 million funded accounts and $40 billion in platform assets. Payward was last valued at around $20 billion and had previously raised $800 million at that valuation.
