Payward Revenue Rises 17% in Q2 Despite Decline in Crypto Spot Trading
Key Takeaways
- •Adjusted revenue rose 17% year over year to $508 million in the second quarter.
- •Total transaction volume declined 13% to $310 billion even as funded accounts increased 42% to 6.6 million.
- •Payward reported adjusted EBITDA of $23 million, representing a margin of about 4.5%.
- •Asset-based and other revenue accounted for 60% of total revenue, up from 55% a year earlier.
- •The company said gains in futures, equities and tokenized equities helped offset weaker crypto spot activity, and it reported a third consecutive quarter of spot market share gains.
Kraken parent Payward reported $508 million in adjusted revenue for the second quarter, a 17% increase from the same period a year earlier, even as crypto spot trading and overall transaction volume declined. Kraken, founded in 2011, is among the oldest operating crypto exchanges, and its results offer a window into how large trading platforms are adapting as crypto trading cycles cool.
According to Friday's earnings report, total transaction volume fell 13% year over year to $310 billion, while funded accounts climbed 42% to 6.6 million, showing customer growth even as trading activity declined.
Payward remained adjusted EBITDA positive, posting $23 million, equivalent to a margin of roughly 4.5% on adjusted revenue. Asset-based and other revenue made up 60% of total revenue, compared with 55% a year earlier, indicating a larger share of revenue from non-transaction-based activity. For exchanges, income tied to customer balances — such as custody, staking and similar services — tends to fluctuate less than trading fees, which rise and fall with market cycles, and Coinbase, the largest US-listed crypto exchange, has built a comparable subscription and services segment for the same purpose of balancing out transaction revenue.
The company said growth in traditional futures, equities and tokenized equities helped offset weaker crypto spot activity. Tokenized equities, blockchain-based representations of stocks, have become a competitive front among trading platforms since 2025, when Robinhood began offering tokenized stocks to European customers and several exchanges rolled out similar products. Payward also said it gained spot market share for a third consecutive quarter.
The results come as Payward has expanded beyond spot crypto trading over the past year into equities, tokenized stocks, pre-IPO exposure and futures.
The company has also expanded its financial infrastructure business through acquisitions, including futures trading platform NinjaTrader in May 2025 and regulated derivatives exchange Bitnomial the following year, as well as its recently announced deal to acquire Magic Labs' wallet infrastructure business. How those newly acquired businesses are integrated, and whether asset-based revenue continues to grow as a share of the mix, are among the main threads to follow in coming quarters.
