Crypto exchange Kraken has paused its plan to go public. According to sources cited by Coindesk, the exchange is blaming unfavorable market conditions four months after it filed confidentially with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Kraken’s parent company, Payward, submitted a draft S‑1 registration last November for an initial public offering of its common stock. The filing came a day after the company raised $800 million at a $20 billion valuation, including $200 million from Citadel Securities.

IPO Plans on Hold

A Kraken representative acknowledged the confidential SEC filing but did not provide further details. According to people with knowledge of the situation, the company intends to revisit its IPO plans once market conditions become more favorable.

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The move follows a sharp downturn in crypto markets since Bitcoin hit a record high in October. Lower asset prices and weaker trading volumes have weighed on valuations, making firms more cautious about public listings.

At the time of publication, Bitcoin traded around $71,375 dollars with a market capitalization of about 1.43 trillion dollars, according to CoinMarketCap data. Over the previous 24 hours, BTC has dropped 3%, with a modest 1% gain in the weekly chart. This is low compared to more than $120K posted around October last year.

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Last year, however, crypto firms saw a surge in IPO activity. Crypto firms including Circle, Bullish, and Gemini raised a combined $14.6 billion in 2025, according to Cointribune.

Related: Kraken’s 2025 Revenue Soared to $2.2 Billion as It Prepares for an IPO

Several crypto firms and exchanges are currently preparing for potential public listings, including Kraken, Consensys, Gemini, OKX, FalconX, Ledger, Chainalysis and tZero. Tokenization specialist Securitize is moving toward a Nasdaq debut via a SPAC deal valued at about 1.25 billion dollars.

Crypto IPO Pipeline Grows

BitGo became the first major crypto listing of 2026 when it raised about 213 million dollars in a U.S. IPO in January at 18 dollars per share, implying a valuation of roughly 2 billion dollars for the digital asset custodian.

The shares initially traded higher but later fell below the offer price, leaving the stock down by around 40–45% from its IPO level in the weeks after listing, according to market data reported by mainstream financial outlets.

Meanwhile, Kraken has been expanding through acquisitions, including the purchase of NinjaTrader, a Cyprus MiFID-licensed broker, tokenization platform Backed Finance, and most recently token management firm Magna. The exchange also rolled out tokenized equity perpetual futures for non U.S. clients via its xStocks offering.