[Payward Lays Off 150 Employees and Seeks Funding at a $20 Billion Valuation]
According to CoinDesk, Kraken's parent company Payward has announced the layoff of approximately 150 employees (around 5% of its total workforce) and is seeking a new round of funding at a $20 billion valuation. Recently, the company acquired stablecoin payments firm Reap for $600 million and digital asset derivatives platform Bitnomial for $550 million. Previously, in 2025, it spent $1.5 billion to acquire the U.S. retail futures platform NinjaTrader. Payward has secretly submitted an S-1 draft to the SEC, and Co-CEO Arjun Sethi stated that preparations for the IPO are about 80% complete.