Payward, the parent company of crypto exchange Kraken, reported $508 million in adjusted revenue for the second quarter of 2026, up 17% year over year, according to Cointelegraph and Crypto Briefing, both published 14 August 2026 and citing Payward’s own earnings report. Cointelegraph describes it as “Friday’s earnings report” without giving an exact publication date for the release itself. Funded accounts grew 42% to 6.6 million even as total transaction volume fell 13% year over year — but the underlying report itself is not something this page holds; it is built from two trade-press accounts of that release.
What’s confirmed by more than one source
Three figures appear in both articles held in full: adjusted revenue of $508 million, up 17% year over year; funded accounts up 42% to 6.6 million; and total transaction volume down 13% year over year. The Block‘s headline states the same $508 million adjusted-revenue figure. The Block is held here as headline-only, so none of its other reported numbers — including the 17% growth rate, the 42% account figure or a dollar figure for volume — can be attributed to it beyond what the headline itself says.
Both Cointelegraph and Crypto Briefing describe Payward’s acquisition of NinjaTrader, a futures trading platform, as part of a broader diversification beyond spot crypto trading. Crypto Briefing frames it as a move into futures, asset-based services and other financial products; Cointelegraph frames it as part of an expansion into futures, equities, tokenized stocks and pre-IPO exposure, and is the only outlet to give a date for the deal — May 2025.
What only one outlet reports
A cluster of figures comes from Cointelegraph alone: a transaction-volume figure of $310 billion (Crypto Briefing reports the same 13% year-over-year decline but does not give a dollar amount); adjusted EBITDA of $23 million; asset-based and other revenue making up 60% of total revenue, up from 55% a year earlier; and the acquisition of derivatives exchange Bitnomial plus an announced deal to acquire Magic Labs’ wallet-infrastructure business. Cointelegraph also reports Payward said it gained spot market share for a third consecutive quarter.
A separate cluster comes from Crypto Briefing alone: full-year 2025 adjusted revenue of $2.2 billion, up 33% year over year; first-quarter 2026 adjusted revenue of $507 million, up 3% year over year; and a reference to recent secondary funding rounds that reportedly valued Payward in the $13 billion to $20 billion range — itself sourced by Crypto Briefing to unnamed reports rather than a named filing.
Why ‘adjusted revenue’ and ‘adjusted EBITDA’ aren’t audited earnings
Payward is a private company. It has no obligation to file a 10-Q with the SEC, and neither outlet held in full states that these figures were reviewed or audited by an accounting firm. Terms like “adjusted revenue” and “adjusted EBITDA” are defined by the company itself in its own release — neither Cointelegraph nor Crypto Briefing quotes Payward’s methodology for what gets added back or excluded. That matters because “adjusted” figures, by construction, differ from GAAP figures, and the size of that gap is not disclosed in either article. The common misreading is to treat a number like $508 million with this much decimal precision as equivalent to a line in an audited financial statement. It is instead a company’s own characterization of its performance, reported to journalists rather than filed with a regulator.
What this page does not tell you
This page is built from two trade-press articles paraphrasing Payward’s earnings release, not from the release itself — we do not hold Payward’s own shareholder letter or press statement, so none of these figures can be checked against Payward’s original text. The Block is held here as headline-only, so nothing beyond its headline can be attributed to it. Neither Cointelegraph nor Crypto Briefing states whether any figure was reviewed or audited by an accounting firm, or discloses Payward’s own definitions of “adjusted revenue,” “asset-based revenue” or “adjusted EBITDA.” Neither source states whether Payward has filed for an IPO or set a timetable for one. And the $13 billion to $20 billion valuation range cited by Crypto Briefing traces to unnamed secondary funding rounds, not a named transaction or filing, so it cannot be verified further here.
Sources
Every fact above is attributed to one of these reports. Where they disagree, the article says so.
- Crypto Briefing
- Cointelegraph
- The Block (headline only)
