Payward, the parent company of Kraken, is pursuing new fundraising based on a $20 billion valuation.

According to a recent CoinDesk report, Payward has recently increased spending on mergers and acquisitions. It bought stablecoin payments company Reeve for $600 million and digital asset derivatives platform Bitnomial for $550 million. In both deals, Payward was valued at $20 billion.

The biggest deal was a $1.5 billion acquisition of NinjaTrader in 2025. By bringing NinjaTrader, a U.S. retail futures platform and a U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission-registered futures commission merchant, under its umbrella, Payward broadened its footing in the U.S. derivatives market and its reach to futures traders.

It is also continuing preparations to list. Payward submitted a draft confidential S-1 registration statement to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Nov. 19 last year. Reports said it halted its initial public offering plan in March due to worsening market conditions, and it is still interested in pushing ahead again if conditions improve.

Arjun Sethi (아르준 세티), co-chief executive of Payward and Kraken, said at Consensus Miami last week that it had completed about 80 percent of its IPO preparations.

Payward said it raised $800 million in two rounds last November to support an expansion of its business to move traditional financial products on-chain. Kraken is expanding beyond spot crypto trading into derivatives, staking and custody.