Kraken's $1 Billion Debt Plan: Will It Cement Its 2026 IPO Efforts?

Kraken is aiming for growth ahead of its anticipated initial public offering (IPO) as the crypto exchange considers raising as much as $1 billion in debt, Bloomberg reported, “citing sources with knowledge of the matter.”

Wall Street Giants Involved

Although the San Francisco-headquartered crypto exchange is working with Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan Chase to raise funds, the talks are still in the preliminary stages. The report further outlined that the two Wall Street giants have initiated conversations with additional banks and direct lenders.

However, Kraken has yet to make a final decision and could end up raising only $200 million. The exchange is also considering raising funds against its equity in addition to the debt package.

Interestingly, the exchange does not need the funds for its operational needs but to speed up its growth efforts.

Kraken’s Ongoing Expansion Efforts

Indeed, the crypto giant recently bought a US-regulated retail futures trading platform, NinjaTrader, for $1.5 billion. Now, it wants to expand the non-crypto platform's presence to the UK, Europe, and Australia.

Kraken also acquired a company in Cyprus earlier this year to obtain a Markets in Financial Instruments Directive (MiFID) license, allowing it to offer derivatives across the European Economic Area. Finance Magnates recently revealed that the Cypriot firm it acquired is linked to the contracts for differences (CFDs) broker brand PU Prime.

Kraken closed its last funding round in 2021 at a valuation of $10.8 billion. However, due to the overall crypto market downturn, its valuation took a massive hit in secondary share sales after that. The valuation recovered last year, mostly due to the demand for cryptocurrencies.

In comparison, Coinbase, a publicly listed US crypto exchange, has a market capitalization of about $51 billion.

Kraken earlier revealed that it generated $1.5 billion in revenue in 2024, a yearly jump of 128 per cent, with earnings of around $380 million. It also has over 15 million users.