Show
Payward, the parent company of cryptocurrency exchange Kraken, reported $60 million in adjusted EBITDA for the third quarter of 2026 on Friday, November 13. Although earnings improved from the previous quarter, the company recorded a sharp decline from last year’s results as customers traded less across its platforms.
According to the Q3 2026 financial highlights published on November 13, adjusted EBITDA increased from $23 million in Q2 but remained about 66% below the $178.6 million recorded in Q3 2025.
Adjusted EBITDA measures a company’s earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization, with certain adjustments. It helps show how much money a business makes from its operations before these costs are considered.
Payward records $353 billion in trading volume
Payward reported $353 billion in customer trading volume during the quarter, which is about 22% increase from Q2 but a 30% decline from the same period last year.
The company also introduced a new measure called total platform margin, replacing adjusted revenue in its financial highlights. This measure also removes staking rewards paid to customers from the calculation.
Total platform margin reached $487 million, compared with $436 million in the previous quarter. However, it was still 12% lower than the amount recorded a year earlier.
Despite the decline in annual trading activity, Payward continued to add customers. The company ended September with 7.1 million funded accounts, representing a 37% increase from Q3 2025.
Billable accounts also reached 1.5 million, up 74% year over year. Funded accounts represent customers who have money in their accounts, while billable accounts are customers counted under Payward’s billing measure.
Kraken expands into tokenized stocks and prediction markets
Beyond its financial results, Payward is preparing to introduce more products to attract customers outside traditional cryptocurrency trading.
One of its planned products is prediction markets for U.S. customers. These platforms allow users to trade contracts based on the possible outcome of future events. However, Payward has not announced when the service will launch.
The company also plans to introduce stock perpetual futures through its own regulated exchange, clearinghouse and broker. These contracts allow traders to take positions on stock prices without owning the actual shares.
This expansion follows Payward’s recent addition of more than 200 tokenized UK and European equities to its xStocks platform. The new assets include shares of Siemens, Shell and LVMH, as well as companies listed in Britain’s FTSE 100 and Germany’s DAX indexes.
Tokenized stocks are digital tokens that represent shares of companies and can be traded through blockchain networks. With the latest additions, xStocks now supports more than 1,500 tokenized assets across several networks.
Payward also plans to develop investment funds built around xStocks. The company is working on xPO, which could allow private businesses to raise money by issuing shares on blockchain networks, subject to regulatory approval.
Other crypto companies report Q3 results
Other major crypto companies have also released their third-quarter financial reports.
Circle, the firm behind the USDC stablecoin, reported $865 million in revenue and reserve income, up 17% year over year, while its USDC stablecoin circulation reached an average of $73.3 billion.
Tether recorded $1.5 billion in net operating profit, supported largely by income from US Treasury bills and other reserve investments. Its reserve buffer also increased to $7.95 billion.
Meanwhile, Hyperliquid reported $190.9 million in protocol revenue, up 21.7% from Q2, while Bitcoin treasury companies Strive and Strategy reported $509 million and $19.53 billion in net income, respectively. Much of their reported profits came from gains in the value of their Bitcoin holdings rather than their regular business operations.
Also Read: MANTRA Halts Unbonding for 7 Days Amid Keplr Key Breach; Token Falls 7.3%