Kraken's Payward seeks fresh capital at $20B valuation as IPO groundwork accelerates!

Kraken's parent company Payward is raising a new funding round at a $20 billion valuation, according to sources familiar with the matter, as the firm builds toward a potential public listing. The company confidentially submitted a draft S-1 to the SEC last November, though it paused formal IPO plans earlier this year amid choppy market conditions.

Payward has been on an aggressive acquisition spree to transform Kraken from a spot crypto exchange into a full-service multi-asset platform. Its biggest move was the $1.5 billion purchase of NinjaTrader, a CFTC-registered retail futures platform, followed by the $550 million acquisition of derivatives exchange Bitnomial and a $600 million deal for stablecoin payments firm Reap — all at the same $20 billion anchor valuation.

The fundraising push also follows a $200 million strategic stake taken by Deutsche Börse in April, which valued…