Encryption giant Kraken's financial skill Province

 

April 2026, KrakenSecretly restarts the IPO application, accepts $200 million from the German Exchange and goes online with Kraken Pro Ink Points credit system under the flag. The community views the crediting system as the cumulative entrance to the $INK space investment box, and the farming strategy is quickly painted on X。

 

One third of the valuation is down

Kraken's IPO road is not going well。

In November 2025, companies completed $800 million in financing, with the participation of top institutions, such as Citadel Securities and Jane Street, at one point valued at $20 billionI don't know。Meanwhile..I don't knowCompanyAN IPO APPLICATION WAS FILED CONFIDENTIALLY WITH THE UNITED STATES SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION。

Source:RootData

However, global market conditions then turned sharply, with many previously listedEncryptionThe company's stock price fell sharply, and Kraken blocked the listing plan at the beginning of the year。

Until recently, Co-CEO Arjun Sethi officially confirmed the IPO application for restart at the Semafor World Economic Conference in Washington. At this time, Kraken ' s latest valuation was approximately $13.3 billion, 33 per cent smaller than its peak。

CurrentPolymarketLet's goBetKrakenIPOCloseMarket valueHigherOneSixCC BY-NC-ND 2.0BillionUnited States dollarsYesProbabilityYesFourFour%I don't knowHigherTwoCC BY-NC-ND 2.0CC BY-NC-ND 2.0BillionUnited States dollarsYesProbabilityYesTwoFour%I don't know。

 

The Deutsche Exchange is behind the stock

Just the same week IPO restarted the news, the Deutsche Exchange announced that it would buy $200 million from Kraken's parent company, Payward, about 1.5 per cent of its total diluted shareholding, and that the deal would be made through the secondary market。

Amounts are not significant on their own, but this investment is far beyond the financial dimension。

The German Exchange, with its Clearstream hosting clearing system, 360T foreign exchange trading platform and Eurox derivatives exchange, is one of the most important providers of traditional financial infrastructure worldwide. According to its official statement, the objective of the investment was to establish a unified liquidity pool, while dealing with the original currency of traditional securities and block chains。

This timeInvestmentsYeahDeepening business cooperation between the two sidesI don't knowIntegration of Kraken's xStocks token stock platform into the German Exchange's digital asset infrastructure。

I've been informedI don't knowKrakenAlreadyTHE CHICAGO COMMODITY EXCHANGE (CME) FUTURES DEAL WAS LAUNCHED IN OCTOBER 2025 TO ENABLEOtherUsers can trade traditional commodity and stock index contracts and encrypted currency. Its xStocks token stock product inLast yearThe cumulative volume of transactions in November exceeded $10 billion。

according to rwa.xyzLatestDataShowAs of 17 April, the total hold of xStocks on the monetized stock track was approximately $302 million, the second highest in the world after Ondo。

This March, NasdaqYeahDeclares Kraken as the settlement level for its monetized stock plan。

Meanwhile, Kraken was approved this year as the first encrypted exchange with direct access to the federal payment system. This has drawn the attention of some members of Congress to systemic risks, but it has also been illustrated by another aspect that Kraken ' s penetration in the traditional financial system is well beyond outside recognition。

Kraken also completed two previous acquisitions: Ninja Trader enhanced institutional derivatives capacity, and Backed Finance provided closed ring support for xStocks' RWA compliance path。

This passage is gradually taking shape from French currency payments to institutional transactions to chain assets。

Another context of concern is that in March 2025 the SEC voluntarily dropped proceedings against KrakenI don't know。The shift in the regulatory environment is an important prerequisite for Kraken to choose to synchronize all actions at this time node。

PictureSource:RootData

 

KEY DETAILS OF $INK TOKENS REMAIN TO BE DISCLOSED

In addition to cooperating with IPO and TradFi, Kraken is synchronizing an online user-oriented thing。

On 6 April, Kraken Pro officially went online on the Ink Points Score System, Season 1 began to score. The points are derived from spot transactions on Kraken Pro, holdouts, staking, and the use of the Nado contract DEX and Tydro loan agreements in the Ink L2 ecology。

I've been informedI don't knowNado and Tydro are original in the Ink ecology, without independent VC financing, relying on Kraken ' s user-direction。

Ink Foundation was officially released and dropped in June 2025 in $INK, with a total supply of 1 billion. It's officially classified as "mobility priority" and anchors the actual productNot governance or speculation。

According to Ink Chain consultantI don't knowThe TGE time window is expected to be in the second half of 2026, but how the points are converted to tokens, complete tokenomics, and then to the next half of the yearNo official confirmation has yet been made。CommunityProjected45% OF THE $INK TOTAL SUPPLY WILL BE ALLOCATED TO THE AIR DROP INCENTIVE, WHICH IS A HIGH-LEVEL CONFIGURATION IN THE SAME L2 PROJECTYeahPending official confirmation。

 

Coinbase has walked the road, what does Kraken mean

KrakenAsThe second-largest centralized exchange in the United States, Coinbase, is an indissociable reference system。

In 2021, Coinbase landed in NASDAQ with the story of the first share of the encrypted exchange, and stock prices have fluctuated so much since they were listedNearIt's worth about $52.7 billionI don't know。

Since then, a number of exchanges have entered capital markets. The concept of "encrypted exchange" has been consumed more than once。

This is Kraken's first real problem:Wall StreetAnd..YesPay a premium for the same storyI'm sorryWhat

Kraken's answer was to position himself as an infrastructure platform, not an exchange. Deutsche Exchange shares, Federal Reserve account, Nasdaq cooperation, xStocks-- These actions point to a different valuation logicI don't know。

BNB Chain and Base have verified the feasibility of combining platform tokens with L2, butAnother questionYesI don't knowThe first advantage has been taken。

So..I don't knowKraken now needs to convince both audiences. Wall Street wants regulatory certainty and a predictable pattern of profit; the users of the chain want money to be issued as soon as possible and airdrop commitments fulfilled as soon as possible. On both sidesStepIt's differentThere is also a lack of convergence of interests。

 

Where's Kraken's space

KnownKINGOL@_FORABOrganisationI don't knowIf Kraken's flag of Ink had finished issuing the coin before listing, it would have been a small number of moneys with their own public chains and platforms, and plans to go to the dollar exchange in the United States. Historically, Kraken has been one of the more friendly North American exchanges to the Chinese market, with early opening of the Chinese-speaking region of KYC support。

And..Another KOL @Siberiaxx1909 has positioned Kraken as "the spoiler of the Chinese-language exchange" 。

The market for the Chinese-language exchange is now a five-pronged pattern of coin-Ann, OKX, Bybit, Bitget, Gate, each of the moats is clear and users have been heavily bound。

• (a) Money-Anne forms a mobile flyer with 32 per cent of cash, 40 per cent of derivatives and 73.5 per cent of head-custody funds
• OKX Web3 wallets live on more than 5 million times a month and cross-chain infrastructure is adhesive to deep-farm users
• Bybit has a permanent presence of $7-10 billion in the non-event of derivatives and confidence-building with full capacity to pay under extreme events
• Bitget takes over the mind of the social trade by 1.1 million single users and more than 110 million single transactions
• Gate became one of the preferred positions found in the new currency with a width of 4,500 plus the upper coin。

Kraken does not dominate these dimensionsFrom the companyIn the meantimeLayoutLookI don't knowOtherIntentionDIRECT TO RWA TRACK. AND IT..ReallyThe advantage is..It's..INSTITUTIONAL TRACKS SUCH AS COMPLIANCE PLATES, FEDERAL RESERVE ACCOUNT, RWA PRODUCT LINES, ETC。

SpecificallyI don't knowCurrency, OKX-type stock products are usually presented in the form of synthetic assets or price differential contracts, and users hold derivatives to track stock prices, not bottom-line real holdouts. KrakenthenBy buying Backed FinanceThe inclusion of xStocks under the flag has resulted in a closed circle of real stock custodians, a compliance depth that currently does not compete at the same level in the Chinese-language market。

This means Kraken is not trying to be hard on retail high frequency, derivative depth or currency width, but is trying to create a "compliance +"RWA+ SELF-BUILT L2 ECOLOGY' DIFFERENTIAL PATH。

But..I don't knowWhether or not the chasmization track translates into real user growth is another issue。

Analysis indicates Kraken is currently in the Chinese-speaking marketStillThere are several thresholds: the KYC process is cumbersome, there is no P2P access, Kraken and Kraken Pro double App are split, and the Chinese customer service response is weak. The advantages of compliance and agency-level capacity are difficult to reach to target users without addressing these localizations。

 

Finally

After allThis competition is not just about Kraken as a company. The encryption exchange has come to a point where the flow dividend is already at its peakHomeThe competition between them is essentially a stock game。

Kraken chooses to advance IPO, TradeFi and chain ecology at this point in timeRateIT IS A DIFFERENT INCREMENTAL SOURCE OF DETENTION: THE ENTRY OF INSTITUTIONAL FUNDS, THE MATURITY OF THE RWA TRACK, AND THE CLARITY OF THE REGULATORY FRAMEWORK THAT WILL ALLOW NEW USERS AND FUNDS TO ENTER THE INDUSTRY, WHICH WILL NOT REQUIRE LOWER FEES OR MORE MONEY, BUT RATHER A COMPLIANCE, CREDIBLE AND COMPATIBLE INFRASTRUCTURE WITH THE TRADITIONAL FINANCIAL SYSTEM。