The IPO of the Kraken crypto exchange is considered significant for the market. How much can you earn from it?

One of the largest US crypto exchanges, Kraken, is preparing for an IPO after raising $800 million in investments. This offering could either restore confidence in the sector and attract institutional investors, or cool down the crypto IPO market, which began to develop actively in 2025.

Kraken is one of the largest cryptocurrency exchanges in the United States. Users can buy and sell digital assets, including Bitcoin and Ethereum, through it. At the end of November 2025, it confidentially filed for an initial public offering in the United States. The number of shares and their price range have not yet been determined, and the timing of the IPO will depend on the speed of the application's review by the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and market conditions, the company said. Earlier, Reuters reported, citing a source, that the IPO could take place in the first quarter of 2026.

The news about the SEC filing came the day after Kraken announced that it had raised $800 million in investments, with its valuation reaching $20 billion in the round. The first tranche came from institutional investors, including investment funds HSG and Oppenheimer Alternative Investment Management and trading company Jane Street. Tribe Capital, co-founded by Arjun Sethi, one of Kraken's executives, also participated in the round. He also invested in the crypto exchange through his family office. In addition, Kraken agreed on a second tranche of $200 million from Citadel Securities.

This is the second investment round since the beginning of autumn: at the end of September, the company raised $500 million and was valued at $15 billion, meaning it grew by 33% in two months.

Kraken's revenue for 2024 was $1.5 billion, and for the first three quarters of 2025, this figure has already exceeded that amount. Adjusted pre-tax profit in 2024 reached $380 million.

Kraken is one of the few global crypto companies with a proven track record: high margins and stable EBITDA, as well as strong growth in assets and ARPU (average revenue per user) with lower risks compared to its competitors, says Maxim Chebotarev, partner at Cats.VC.

He admitted that Kraken shares are in high demand and that his fund managed to acquire them through personal connections: investments under current conditions allow participation in the company's growth until its IPO in 2026, with a potential return of 1.5–2x, and further growth after listing — up to 2–4x within three years.

Cats.VC has identified three IPO scenarios for Kraken that the fund is targeting. Conservative — with an IPO valuation of $18 billion and capitalization growth to $25 billion in three years. Base — with a valuation of $22 billion at the time of placement and growth to $35 billion by 2029. And optimistic, in which Kraken will receive a valuation of $25 billion during the IPO and rise in price to $50 billion within three years.

Kraken's IPO could become "one of the most significant public offerings in the history of fintech and digital assets," wrote Sam Boboev, a fintech enthusiast and author of the Fintech Wrap Up newsletter, on LinkedIn. In his opinion, a successful listing would be a powerful benchmark for the entire industry and could potentially encourage more companies working with cryptocurrencies to enter public markets.

Kraken may have a successful IPO, but this is no longer the market of 2021, according to Will Banks, executive director of financial advisory firm Challenger Capital. It set a record for the number of placements.

"I don't think that brand alone can ensure a successful listing: we are long past the point where a recognizable crypto name guarantees demand. What matters now is whether public investors believe that Kraken is capable of consistently generating reliable returns across different market cycles," he noted.

If Kraken's IPO is successful, it will help bring institutional capital, talent, and trust back to the sector, as well as facilitate future listings, he believes. But if it encounters difficulties or is postponed, the signal will be the opposite: public markets still do not trust the sustainability of crypto revenues, Banks believes. This will not only affect Kraken, but also dampen sentiment across the entire chain of future IPOs, he added.

"In any case, I don't think Kraken's IPO will have a short-term impact on token prices, but I believe it will shape mainstream investors' perception of the crypto industry for years to come," the expert concluded.

Kraken has joined the wave of crypto company IPOs, according to The Wall Street Journal. In 2026, crypto projects BitGo, Consensys, Blockchain.com, and Ledger may also go public. Grayscale Investments, a digital asset management company, has also filed for an IPO. Its debut on the stock exchange is scheduled for early 2026.

In June 2025, Circle Internet Group, the company behind the USDC stablecoin, held an IPO at $31 per share, and since then, the price of its securities has grown 2.7 times. In August, two more cryptocurrency-related companies went public, Barron's notes. Shares of Bullish, which owns the CoinDesk media portal, soared 84% on their first day of trading, from $37 to $68 per share. At the close of trading on January 5, they were worth $41.48. And shares of Miami International Holdings, which allows investors to buy and sell bitcoin options, rose more than 30% on their debut day, from $23 to $31 per share. The company's shares are now worth more than $46.

Recent placements show that investors are willing to pay a premium for companies with the most mature and promising business models, says Capital Lab partner Evgeny Shatov. Over the past two years, companies in the digital asset sector have been actively working to streamline their compliance processes, improve their financial reporting, and expand their range of regulated products, which makes their business more transparent to investors, he believes.

Crypto companies are rushing to go public before the US midterm congressional elections in November 2026, as they try to protect themselves from potential uncertainty. In addition, the president's party (in this case, the Republicans) usually loses ground in such elections, which "could seriously affect the position of the digital asset industry," writes Reuters.

After Donald Trump returned to the White House, the regulatory environment for companies in the digital asset space improved significantly in the US. Trump promised to turn the US into "the crypto capital of the world," and the US passed the GENIUS Act, which aims to develop and regulate stablecoins. In addition, by presidential decree, Paul Atkins became the head of the SEC in April 2025, replacing Gary Gensler, who had consistently advocated for tighter regulation of the cryptocurrency market. Atkins is more loyal to the sector, which the industry perceives as a relaxation of control by the SEC.

Compared to recent years, the regulatory environment in the US has clearly become less hostile to digital assets, says Will Banks of Challenger Capital. Yuri Brisov, partner at Digital & Analogue Partners, agrees: under new leadership, the SEC has launched a project to interact with the market and is issuing clarifications on key elements of the blockchain ecosystem: NFTs, memecoins, mining, etc.

"This does not mean complete regulatory clarity, but it does create what the market has long needed—clear rules of the game," Brisov believes.

The question remains open as to whether Kraken will be able to maintain economic stability amid reduced activity and a tightening regulatory framework, according to Yuri Brisov.

The state of the cryptocurrency market, which grew actively for most of last year, deteriorated significantly by the end of 2025. Bitcoin peaked in October at over $126,000. However, another escalation in US-China relations and Trump's threats to impose 100% tariffs on goods from China caused investors to flee from risky assets, including cryptocurrencies. By the end of 2025, the cryptocurrency market had still not recovered, with Bitcoin, for example, trading at about a third below its peak value.

Banks does not consider this a threat to Kraken. The company is a major liquidity platform, but that does not mean it supports the market with its own capital, he believes.

"As with other major exchanges, customer crypto assets are held in custody and are not owned by Kraken, and there is no indication that the company has a significant proprietary trading portfolio in crypto assets. This is crucial because it means that Kraken is not exposed to the risks that lenders, traders, or yield platforms faced in the last cycle," Banks says.

This article was AI-translated and verified by a human editor