According to Inc, Kraken has officially filed confidential draft registration documents with the SEC, marking the first concrete step toward a public listing. The crypto exchange revealed it doubled its revenue from “one to two billion-ish” over the past year, attributing much of this growth to market conditions following Trump’s election. Co-CEO David Ripley claims Kraken’s financials are “bigger and stronger than most companies going public” and would place them in the top 5 percent. The company recently secured $800 million in funding from investors including Jane Street and Tribe Capital, plus a separate $200 million strategic investment from Citadel Securities that values Kraken at $20 billion. While no specific timeline exists, the IPO is expected to occur after the SEC completes its review process.
From regulatory trouble to IPO track
Here’s the thing that makes this story fascinating: Kraken was facing an SEC lawsuit just last year. Co-CEO David Ripley described the previous regulatory environment under Biden as “not a fun life to have.” But Trump’s election completely changed the game, allowing Kraken to shift from defensive to offensive mode. That revenue doubling from $1 billion to $2 billion basically happened because the regulatory floodgates reopened. It’s pretty remarkable how quickly a company can pivot when the political winds change direction.
Joining the crypto public company club
Kraken isn’t going public in isolation. They’re joining what’s becoming a pretty crowded field of crypto companies testing the public markets. We’ve seen Circle, Galaxy Digital, eToro, Bullish, and Gemini all make their moves this year. And they’re part of a broader IPO market thaw that includes companies like Figma and Klarna. The question is whether retail investors will embrace crypto exchanges the same way they did during the 2021 boom times. With Kraken’s recent $800 million raise and their confidential filing, they’re certainly positioning themselves as one of the stronger contenders.
The timing question
So when can we actually expect to see Kraken shares trading? That’s the billion-dollar question. The company isn’t committing to any specific timeline, and the SEC review process can be unpredictable. But Ripley did mention they’ve been working from an “IPO readiness standpoint” since August. Given that they just raised all that capital and the market sentiment has improved dramatically, I’d expect we’ll see them push for a 2025 listing rather than waiting until 2026. The real test will be whether they can maintain that $20 billion valuation through the entire process. After all, crypto valuations have been known to be… volatile.
