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Payward, the parent company of cryptocurrency exchange Kraken, reported an adjusted EBITDA of $60 million for the third quarter, a 66% decrease from $178.6 million a year earlier. The financial results were released on Friday, highlighting a significant divergence between profitability metrics and market positioning within the digital asset sector.
Spot Market Share Expansion
Despite the earnings decline, Payward’s share of global crypto spot trading nearly doubled to 6.5% in September, up from 3.3% in the same period last year. This increase reflects a larger portion of spot trading relative to competitors rather than an overall rise in trading activity. Total transaction volume for the quarter reached $353 billion, down 30% from the previous year. These figures encompass activity across spot, margin, equities, payments, and certain derivatives.
The company introduced a new measure called total platform margin this quarter to replace adjusted revenue. This metric includes a deduction for staking rewards paid to customers. Total platform margin fell 12% to $487 million. In the second quarter, this figure stood at $436 million, meaning the third quarter saw a $51 million increase over the prior quarter.
Acquisition-Driven Revenue Shift
Payward has spent the last two years expanding beyond its core cryptocurrency exchange business through a series of acquisitions. In 2025, the company acquired futures broker NinjaTrader and proprietary trading firm Breakout. Breakout was included in the third-quarter results for the full quarter following its September 2025 acquisition. In May 2026, Payward purchased Bitnomial, a US-regulated derivatives platform, and in July, it expanded into stablecoin payments with the purchase of Reap. The company did not quantify the specific contribution of the Breakout or Reap acquisitions to the quarter’s financials.
Revenue streams from asset- and access-based services now account for 52% of total platform margin, up from 46% a year earlier. Margin from subscriptions, trader evaluations, and other paid services rose 59% to $125 million. Additionally, the number of derivatives contracts on which Payward charges a per-contract fee increased 84% to 66 million. Margin earned from assets customers hold on Payward’s platforms rose 26% to $128 million, contributing roughly half of the $51 million quarterly increase in total platform margin.
Adjusted EBITDA improved from $23 million in the second quarter to $60 million in the third quarter. The adjusted EBITDA margin relative to total platform margin rose to 12% from 5% in the prior quarter. Quarterly transaction volume also rose 22% compared to the second quarter.
IPO Timeline Adjustments
Payward confidentially filed for a US initial public offering in November 2025. The company paused these plans in March as market conditions weakened. By September, the earliest potential listing window under consideration was the second quarter of 2027. The shift in the IPO timeline coincides with the company’s strategic pivot toward diversifying its revenue base through non-trading services and acquisitions.
