Kraken's Parent Payward Posts 71% Profit Drop on Weak Trading

Payward, the parent company of the Kraken cryptocurrency exchange, posted adjusted pretax earnings of $23 million for the three months ended June 30, 2026, down 71 percent from the $79.7 million it reported a year earlier.

Platform transaction volume slid 18 percent to $310 billion in the quarter. Adjusted revenue rose 17 percent to $508 million, according to a shareholder communication and the company's financial highlights.

Digital asset prices fell over the quarter, and investor demand cooled. Payward tied the earnings slide to weaker spot trading across the crypto market. Bitcoin was trading near half the peak it touched in October 2025. Several rival exchanges reported similar pressure on trading-related revenue.

Some client metrics held up. Funded accounts, those holding a positive balance, rose 42 percent to a record 6.6 million. Assets on the platform totaled $40 billion. Measured at constant prices, real assets grew substantially, which the company read as clients consolidating activity rather than leaving. Spot market share rose for a third consecutive quarter, Payward said.

The revenue mix shifted further from trading fees. Asset-based and other non-trading revenue accounted for 60 percent of the total, up from 55 percent a year earlier. Growth in futures and tokenized equities helped offset softer spot volumes. Daily average revenue trades in futures rose modestly from a year earlier, and clients increasingly traded multiple asset classes on one platform.