Kraken Slashes 150 Roles While Ramping Up AI Efficiency Measures

Kraken’s plan to go public in the US may have to wait until 2027. The crypto exchange, formally known as Payward, laid off about 150 workers last week, a move that has pushed back its initial public offering timeline by at least a year, Bloomberg reported, citing a person familiar with the matter.

A Year Of Shifting Plans

The company had been quietly working toward a public listing for months. Kraken filed confidentially with US regulators late last year, then put those plans on hold in March as crypto prices fell.

Co-CEO Arjun Sethi acknowledged the filing at a recent conference but stopped short of giving any dates. Now, according to reports, the IPO is unlikely before 2027.

The layoffs were driven by the company’s growing use of artificial intelligence across its operations. The source told Bloomberg that AI is being used more broadly throughout the business, though no further job cuts are currently planned.

Crypto Sector Feels The Pressure

Kraken is far from alone. Crypto companies have shed more than 5,000 jobs so far this year, with AI adoption cited repeatedly as a key driver. Coinbase cut 700 employees, about 14% of its workforce, on May 5.

Rival exchanges Gemini and Crypto.com let go of about 200 and 180 staff, respectively, earlier in the year. Block Inc. made the steepest cut of all, eliminating around 4,000 positions in February, roughly half its total headcount.

Crypto data firm Dune also announced layoffs this week, trimming a quarter of its staff as it refocused on core products.

A weaker market has added to the strain. Prices have been sliding since late 2025, and several publicly traded crypto firms reported losses in their first-quarter earnings.

@arjunsethi CEO, @krakenfx reveals that the company has privately filed to become public.

“Are there plans to take Kraken public soon?

Uh, we confidentially filed.

Oh, is that news?

I believe that’s news.” pic.twitter.com/QJRH8YStMA

— Semafor (@semafor) April 14, 2026

The company has not publicly confirmed the layoffs or the revised IPO timeline. Reporters reached out to Kraken and did not receive a response before publication.

For now, Kraken appears to be tightening its operations while it waits for better conditions. Whether the market recovers fast enough to make 2027 a realistic window for a public debut remains to be seen.

The exchange is one of the largest in the US, and its listing has been closely watched across the industry.

Featured image from DL News, chart from TradingView