Kraken parent Payward reports record revenue growth in 2025

Payward is trying to look less like a single crypto exchange and more like a trading and payments stack that happens to have crypto at its center. Its latest annual snapshot reads like a company building for scale: more volume, more accounts, and more lines of revenue that do not depend on a single market mood.In a full-year update published Tuesday, Payward said adjusted revenue reached $2.2 billion in 2025, up 33% from 2024. Adjusted EBITDA rose 26% to $531 million. The company reported total platform transaction volume of $2.0 trillion, a 34% year-over-year increase, while assets on platform grew 11% to $48.2 billion. Funded accounts climbed to 5.7 million, up 50%.

The revenue mix mattered as much as the headline number. Payward said about 47% came from trading-based revenue, while 53% came from asset-based and other revenue tied to custody, yield, payments, and financing. That balance can soften the swings that hit exchanges when spot trading cools. 

The firm also highlighted growth in futures activity, with futures DARTs (daily average revenue trades) up 119% after integrating acquisitions such as NinjaTrader and Breakout and expanding its futures lineup. Payward listed additional 2025 deals, including Small Exchange and Capitalise.ai, and said it closed the acquisition of Backed in January 2026 to bring issuance, trading, and settlement for its xStocks product under one roof. 

Payward used the report to argue that its risk systems held up in volatility. It said the platform generated $625 million in adjusted revenue and $84 million in adjusted EBITDA in Q4 2025 and stayed online through an October liquidation wave that wiped out more than $19 billion in leveraged positions across the industry.

For traders and prospective investors, the message is that Payward wants the next growth phase to come from deeper product use and a broader set of assets, while keeping custody and settlement on a single set of rails.