Kraken has filed confidentially for an initial public offering, co-CEO Arjun Sethi said Tuesday.
Sethi confirmed the filing at the Semafor World Economy in Washington, D.C. It was first reported by CNBC in November, citing unnamed sources.
In that time, though, Kraken’s value has fallen to $13.3 billion, from $20 billion in November, Bloomberg reported, based on Deutsche Börse Group’s agreement to invest $200 million into the company in exchange for a 1.5% fully diluted stake.
Also, the crypto market has turned downward since November, when bitcoin was valued at around $110,000. As of noon Eastern time Wednesday, that price was about $73,800.
Market conditions led Kraken to freeze its IPO last month, CoinDesk reported.
A Kraken spokesperson did not respond immediately to a request for comment Wednesday.
Bitcoin fell to its lowest Trump administration value in February – about $60,000 – but has regained some.
Deutsche Bank analysts said in a note seen by BBC that the drop in February was “triggered by” Trump’s nomination of former Federal Reserve Gov. Kevin Warsh to lead the central bank. The analysts noted that some believe Warsh will be more “hawkish” and keep interest rates higher, in contrast to the looser monetary policy that supports crypto investments.
A number of crypto firms have filed to go public in the past year, including Gemini, Circle and, more recently, BitGo.
Kraken, for its part, last month received a master account from the Fed – a first in the cryptosphere.
With that, Payward Ventures, which does business as Kraken Financial, is now able to move money on the same rails banks and credit unions use, giving Kraken faster and more efficient movement while reducing the complexity and cost of moving money, the firm said.
