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Payward, the parent company of crypto exchange Kraken, posted $508 million in second-quarter revenue. That’s a 17% jump year-over-year, and it arrived alongside a metric that matters even more for the company’s long-term story: funded accounts climbed 42% to 6.6 million.
The kicker is that total transaction volume actually dropped 13% over the same period. Revenue up, users up, trading down.
More users, fewer trades, more money
The divergence between rising revenue and falling volume is the most telling detail in Payward’s Q2 results. In Payward’s case, the structural change appears to be diversification. The company has been expanding beyond spot trading into futures, asset-based services, and other financial products. Its acquisition of NinjaTrader, a futures trading platform, is one of the more visible bets in that direction.
The 42% increase in funded accounts to 6.6 million suggests the company is pulling in new users even during what the industry typically considers a slow season. Q2 has historically been a period of softer trading volumes across crypto markets, making the revenue growth all the more notable.
The bigger financial picture
Zoom out and the Q2 numbers fit into a broader growth story for Payward. The company’s full-year adjusted revenue for 2025 hit $2.2 billion, representing a 33% increase year-over-year.
First-quarter 2026 adjusted revenue came in at $507 million, essentially flat compared to Q2. The 3% year-over-year growth in Q1 was modest compared to Q2’s 17% jump, but context matters. Q1 comparisons were stacked against a strong prior-year period, making even small gains meaningful.
IPO positioning and competitive landscape
Recent secondary funding rounds have reportedly valued the company in the $13 billion to $20 billion range.
The NinjaTrader acquisition is worth watching in this context. Futures trading brings in a different kind of customer, one who is often more institutional, more active during volatile periods, and more willing to pay for sophisticated trading tools. It also diversifies Payward’s revenue away from pure crypto exposure, giving it a foothold in traditional derivatives markets.
The 42% funded account growth also serves the IPO narrative well. Growing your user base by nearly half in a quarter when trading volumes are declining suggests organic demand for the platform itself, not just demand driven by speculative market conditions.
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