Kraken parent Payward gains market share as slower trading weighs on earnings
Payward’s adjusted EBITDA fell 66% year over year to $60 million, even as its share of global spot trading nearly doubled and fee-based services expanded.
Payward, the parent company of Kraken, saw its adjusted EBITDA decline by 66% year-over-year to $60 million in the third quarter, despite its share of global crypto spot trading nearly doubling to 6.5% from 3.3%. The company handled $353 billion in transactions, a 30% decrease from the previous year, while its total platform margin fell 12% to $487 million.
Payward introduced this adjusted EBITDA metric in the current quarter to replace adjusted revenue, which now includes a deduction for staking rewards paid to customers. The company's recent acquisitions, such as NinjaTrader, Breakout, and Bitnomial, focused on expanding into derivatives, proprietary trading, tokenized assets, and payments to diversify its revenue streams beyond transaction fees, which fluctuate with market activity.
Payward's margin from subscriptions, trader evaluations, and other paid services rose 59% to $125 million, while fees from derivatives contracts increased by 84% to 66 million. Despite the decline in adjusted EBITDA, asset- and access-based services contributed to a 52% share of total platform margin, up from 46% a year earlier.
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