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Payward Inc., the company behind the Kraken crypto exchange, reported $60 million in adjusted EBITDA for the third quarter of 2026. That is up 163% from the $23 million it booked in Q2.
The catch: the same figure is down 67% from the same quarter a year earlier. So the quarter was a strong rebound, measured against a year-ago bar that was set much higher.
The numbers arrived in a shareholder letter dated November 13, 2026. They give a rare look inside one of crypto’s largest privately held exchanges.
The quarter in numbers
Payward’s $60 million in Q3 marks a sharp turnaround from the second quarter.
Then there is Total Platform Margin, which came in at $487 million. That figure rose 12% quarter over quarter but fell 12% year over year.
Trading activity tells a similar story. Platform volume landed at $353 billion for the quarter, a 30% drop from a year earlier.
One number moved firmly in the other direction. Funded accounts, meaning accounts that hold a positive balance, climbed 37% year over year to 7.1 million.
Building beyond the trading desk
Payward appears to be reading that same signal. The company is pushing into products that do not depend solely on trading fees.
Among them are tokenized equities and on-chain perpetual contracts for US users. Both remain pending regulatory approval, so neither is live for American customers yet.
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Europe is another focus. In October 2026, Payward agreed to acquire Saldo Bank, an EU-licensed lender. The planned deal would broaden the services Kraken can offer across the region.
The pipeline does not stop there. Payward is planning an entry into prediction markets, which would add another potential revenue stream.
The company has also signaled that it plans to issue its own token at some point. No timeline has been given, so for now that remains an intention rather than a launch date.
Cost cuts and the IPO question
The cost side of the ledger has changed too. Earlier in 2026, Payward cut approximately 150 staff members as part of a restructuring.
The company attributed those reductions to efficiencies from AI implementations.
Then there is the long-running IPO conversation. Talk of Payward going public by the end of 2026 has circulated, but there are indications the listing may now slip into 2027.
What it means for Kraken and its stakeholders
The Q3 report reads as a company bracing for a slower trading environment while trying to widen its business. The quarter-over-quarter recovery is real. So is the year-over-year decline.
The account growth offers a counterweight. Adding customers at a 37% clip while volume falls 30% suggests users are sticking around even when they are not actively trading.
Several of the growth bets hinge on outside approvals. US tokenized equities and on-chain perpetuals need regulators to agree, and the Saldo Bank purchase still has to close.
The token plan, with no timeline attached, sits even further out.
What to watch next: whether Q4 extends the sequential profit recovery, whether trading volume stabilizes, and whether regulators clear the US product launches. The answers will likely shape both investor sentiment and the timing of any Payward IPO, whether that lands in 2026 or, as indications suggest, in 2027.
