Kraken Reorganizes Staff as Company Preps for Wall Street Debut

Kraken has reorganized its staff across multiple departments in recent months as part of a strategic move before its planned initial public offering next year.

A Kraken spokesperson told Decrypt that the company continuously evaluates its workforce to ensure it aligns with its strategic priorities.

“We’re approaching this with discipline and intention, making the difficult decision to eliminate certain roles and consolidate teams where redundancies exist, while continuing to hire in key areas of the business,” they said.

The crypto exchange spokesperson added that Kraken is “launching more new products than ever before, driving strong revenue growth, and rapidly expanding across our entire product portfolio.”

That includes a deal to acquire NinjaTrader, announced last month. Coindesk initially reported on Thursday that “hundreds” of employees have been laid off since Kraken trimmed 15% of its workforce in October.

When last year’s layoffs were announced, Kraken co-CEO Arjun Sethi and Dave Ripley said at the time they had fallen into “the trap of building organizational layers.” Since then, Sethi and Ripley claimed they have sought to “tackle” the problem and “eliminate” those layers.

Kraken’s reported restructuring and layoffs follow the dismissal of a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission lawsuit against the exchange in March. Kraken spokespeople  characterized it as the end of a “wasteful, politically motivated campaign.”

Three weeks before the official lawsuit dismissal, Kraken’s parent company, Payward Inc., confirmed with Decrypt that its plans to go public were part of a long-term roadmap.

Kraken will “pursue public markets” because it “makes sense” for its clients, partners, and shareholders, a company spokesperson told Decrypt in early March.

The company is reportedly considering raising up to $1 billion in debt to accelerate growth ahead of going public, working with major financial institutions like Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan Chase.

The exchange continues expanding its product portfolio, launching commission-free stock and ETF trading for U.S. customers on Monday. The company also completed a $1.5 billion acquisition of futures trading platform NinjaTrader earlier this year.

Edited by Stacy Elliott.