Kraken parent Payward eliminated 150 workers after deploying AI, with Bloomberg reporting the exchange’s IPO may slip to 2027 as crypto prices weigh on timing.
Posted May 18, 2026 at 5:24 am EST.
Kraken parent Payward eliminated roughly 150 workers Thursday after deploying AI technology that improved efficiency, Bloomberg reported, citing a person familiar with the matter who was not authorized to speak publicly. The cuts represent approximately 5% of the company’s roughly 3,000-person workforce.
The layoffs are being framed internally as an optimization exercise ahead of a planned public listing, according to CoinDesk, which independently confirmed the headcount reduction. Kraken is deploying AI more extensively across the company, though further job cuts are not planned at the moment, the person told Bloomberg.
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More significantly, Bloomberg reported that Kraken may not go public as soon as initially expected due to the sharp decline in digital-asset prices. The IPO could slip to 2027. Payward paused its listing plans in March after filing a confidential S-1 with the SEC in November, and while co-CEO Arjun Sethi said at Consensus Miami earlier this month that the exchange is “80% ready” to list, the $20 billion private valuation the company has been raising at remains at odds with secondary trades implying closer to $13.3 billion.
The staff reduction follows an aggressive acquisition sprint.
Over the past year, Payward has acquired NinjaTrader for $1.5 billion, agreed to buy stablecoin-focused payments firm Reap Technologies for $600 million, and closed a $550 million deal for derivatives exchange Bitnomial on May 4. The company also filed for an OCC national trust bank charter last week. The combination of expanding infrastructure, trimming headcount, and delaying the listing reflects a company trying to build IPO-ready margins in a market that has turned against it.
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