Kraken Says It is 80% Ready for IPO and Launches MoneyGram Cash Withdrawal Partnership
Kraken co-CEO Arjun Sethi said Tuesday that the cryptocurrency exchange is “80% ready” to go public and announced a new partnership with MoneyGram to allow users to withdraw cryptocurrency as cash at physical locations worldwide. The dual announcement at Consensus Miami positions Kraken as one of the most active exchange IPO candidates in the current market cycle.
Sethi did not give a specific timeline for the listing.
The IPO Readiness Claim
Sethi’s “80%” figure, cited in a CoinDesk report published May 5, signals that Kraken has completed the bulk of its internal preparation for a public offering but has not yet filed an S-1 registration statement with the SEC. Public market readiness typically involves audited multi-year financials, internal controls assessment, and underwriter selection.
Sethi’s framing suggests those processes are advanced but not final. Kraken has been privately held since its founding in 2011 and was last valued at roughly $10 billion in a 2022 secondary transaction.
The timing aligns with a broader wave of cryptocurrency-related public listings. Coinbase (COIN) went public via direct listing in April 2021. Robinhood (HOOD) listed in July 2021.
Both have since traded at large discounts to their debut prices, though both recovered significantly through the 2024-2026 bull cycle. A Kraken IPO in 2026 would enter a market where institutional appetite for cryptocurrency equities has grown substantially since the approval of spot Bitcoin ETFs in January 2024.
Also Read: Credit Acceptance Posts Q1 Earnings Growth Despite Subprime Market Share Pressure
The MoneyGram Deal
Alongside the IPO commentary, Kraken said it has signed a partnership with MoneyGram that lets users convert cryptocurrency holdings into cash at MoneyGram’s physical agent network.
MoneyGram operates more than 350,000 agent locations across over 200 countries and territories, making it one of the largest cash disbursement networks on the planet. The partnership targets users in markets where banking access is limited or where converting digital assets to local currency requires costly or slow intermediaries.
The arrangement is a direct extension of Kraken’s stated goal of making cryptocurrency accessible beyond phone-first retail.
Kraken allows users to initiate withdrawals in the app, then collect cash at a MoneyGram location without needing a bank account. The product addresses a persistent friction point in cryptocurrency adoption, the last-mile conversion from digital to physical value for users outside formal banking systems.
Also Read: Solana and Google Cloud Launch Stablecoin Payments for AI Agents
Background
Kraken is one of the oldest and largest cryptocurrency exchanges by volume, founded in San Francisco in 2011 by Jesse Powell.
The exchange built its early reputation on security and compliance in the years following the Mt. Gox collapse.
Kraken acquired the NinjaTrader futures platform in early 2024 and rebranded to Payward, Inc. as the parent entity, though the Kraken brand remains the public-facing name. The exchange has expanded aggressively into futures, staking, and NFT trading over the last two years.
Sethi joined as co-CEO alongside Dave Ripley in 2024 after Payward acquired his startup.
IPO talk for Kraken is not new. The exchange discussed potential listing paths as far back as 2021 but held off citing market conditions and regulatory uncertainty.
The SEC’s enforcement posture toward cryptocurrency exchanges cooled significantly after the change in administration in January 2025, which has reopened the IPO window for exchanges that previously faced legal exposure. Kraken settled a separate SEC action over its U.S. staking program in February 2023 for $30 million.
Also Read: Chip Stocks Surge to Drive Nasdaq and S&P 500 to Fresh Records
What to Watch
Kraken’s next visible milestone is an S-1 filing with the SEC.
Until that document appears, the “80% ready” framing carries no binding commitment or regulatory deadline. The MoneyGram partnership is live-adjacent but Kraken has not stated a launch date for the cash withdrawal feature in specific markets.
For the IPO itself, the question is whether Kraken aims for a 2026 window or waits until 2027, when post-election regulatory clarity may be even further advanced. Equity investors will watch for underwriter selection, which typically precedes an S-1 by four to eight weeks, as the clearest forward indicator.
Read Next: AMD Q1 2026 Earnings Beat
