Kraken parent Payward reported a 12% year-over-year decline in total platform margin for the third quarter of 2026, as weaker cryptocurrency trading activity continued to pressure transaction-fee-dependent businesses. The company's total platform margin reached $487 million in Q3, down from the same period last year but up 12% from $436 million in the second quarter. Payward uses total platform margin instead of adjusted revenue, deducting trading costs and staking rewards paid to customers.
Adjusted EBITDA came in at $60 million for the quarter, recovering from $23 million in Q2 but falling roughly two-thirds from $178.6 million a year earlier. Customers transacted $353 billion across Payward's platforms during the period, with volume down 30% year over year but up 22% sequentially. Funded accounts ended September at 7.1 million, up 7% from Q2 and 37% year over year, while billable accounts reached 1.5 million, up 9% from Q2 and 74% year over year.
The results reflect broader exchange industry struggles. Coinbase reported a 35% year-over-year drop in third-quarter revenue, while Gemini Space Station recorded a 19% revenue decline alongside a 73% fall in trading volumes. Payward is increasingly looking beyond crypto trading to reduce its reliance on market activity and trading fees.
Non-trading businesses accounted for 52% of total platform margin in Q3, compared with 46% a year earlier. Payward has been expanding into banking, asset management, Payward Services, traditional futures, equities, tokenized stocks, payments, custody, and lending. The company has also identified artificial intelligence as a fifth business pillar, with plans for a personal finance AI agent and investment funds tied to its xStocks tokenized equities platform. xStocks surpassed $1 billion in assets under management in October, and Payward added more than 200 tokenized UK and European equities to the platform on Wednesday.
Payward’s strategy also includes decentralized finance exposure. In November, a fund affiliated with Payward and its clients purchased an undisclosed amount of AAVE tokens through secondary-market transactions, following earlier discussions with decentralized lending platform Aave about potential cooperation. The move highlights Payward’s growing interest in DeFi and asset management.
The company has also held discussions with major financial institutions. Talks with Wells Fargo focused on providing liquidity for cryptocurrency trading, while separate discussions with BNY explored a potential financial infrastructure partnership involving digital assets, custody, wealth management, trading, and payments. These initiatives could strengthen Payward’s position in both traditional finance and digital assets, though no formal agreements have been confirmed.
Looking ahead, Payward plans to launch prediction markets for U.S. clients, offer stock perpetual futures through its own CFTC-regulated exchange, clearinghouse, and broker, allow customers to share collateral across products, settle U.S. dollar wires through its Federal Reserve master account, test a U.S. credit card, and fund lending in Europe with customer deposits. It is also developing xPO, a platform that would let private companies raise capital by issuing shares onchain, subject to regulatory approval.
