Deutsche Börse invests $200 million in Kraken, valuation down 30% year-on-year

Author: yyctrader

Translation: TechFlow

TechFlow Intro: Kraken’s Co-CEO confirmed at the Semafor World Economic Forum in Washington that the exchange has secretly filed for an IPO. Meanwhile, Germany’s largest exchange operator invested $200 million for a 1.5% fully diluted equity stake. The implied valuation stands at $13.3 billion—down 33% from the $20 billion valuation reached during its November 2025 funding round—but traditional financial institutions are still betting on Kraken at this juncture.

Kraken Co-CEO Arjun Sethi confirmed on Tuesday at the Semafor World Economic Forum in Washington that the crypto exchange has secretly filed its IPO application.

This announcement coincides with Deutsche Börse’s $200 million investment in Kraken’s parent company, Payward, acquiring approximately 1.5% of fully diluted equity. The deal implies a valuation of roughly $13.3 billion—33% lower than Kraken’s $20 billion valuation during its $800 million funding round in November 2025.

Kraken initially filed its S-1 draft registration statement with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in November 2025—one day after closing that funding round, which was backed by Citadel Securities, Jane Street, and DRW Venture Capital. The exchange has not yet disclosed the size or pricing of its planned offering, stating that terms will be finalized once regulatory review is complete and market conditions stabilize.

Sethi said during the forum that the IPO is part of Kraken’s broader mission to democratize complex financial instruments. “What users ultimately want is what Citadel and Jane Street have—or what JPMorgan has—and they want access to those things,” he said. “That’s our mission: How do we make all these products accessible?”

Deutsche Börse’s investment deepens a commercial partnership first announced in December 2025, focused on integrating Kraken’s xStocks tokenized stock platform into Deutsche Börse’s digital asset infrastructure.

Kraken has been aggressively expanding over recent months. In October 2025, the exchange launched CME futures trading, enabling users to access traditional commodity and index futures contracts alongside crypto derivatives. Its xStocks tokenized stock product surpassed $10 billion in cumulative trading volume in November, and in March, Nasdaq selected Kraken as the settlement layer for its own tokenized stock program.

The regulatory landscape has also shifted sharply in Kraken’s favor. In March 2025, the SEC dropped its lawsuit against the exchange without any admission of wrongdoing—a move reflecting the current administration’s broad retreat from aggressive crypto enforcement.

Kraken is the second-largest U.S.-based centralized exchange, trailing only Coinbase, which went public via direct listing in 2021.