Crypto exchange Kraken submits confidential US IPO filing

Kraken just went full stealth mode — the Wyoming-based crypto exchange announced it confidentially submitted a Form S-1 with the SEC for a US IPO. This ends months of industry speculation about when the OG exchange would finally go public.

The timing is spicy — this comes less than a week after co-CEO Arjun Sethi said they weren't "racing to the door as quickly as possible" for an IPO. Guess they were just waiting for the perfect moment to drop the filing.

Even more wild — this IPO move comes just 24 hours after Kraken announced it hit a $20 billion valuation following an $800 million raise across two funding rounds in 2025. They stayed quiet about IPO plans during that funding announcement too.

The SEC is back in business after that 43-day government shutdown, so now they get to review Kraken's filing. No timeline yet on when this might actually hit the public markets.

Kraken joins the growing list of US crypto exchanges going public — Gemini did it in 2025, Coinbase was the pioneer back in 2021. But here's the real tea: Grayscale Investments just announced their own Form S-1 filing on Thursday, about four months after they filed confidentially.

Reports have been circulating since 2024 about Kraken's IPO plans, but the company stayed radio silent until Wednesday's official announcement.

While everyone's rushing to go public, Ripple Labs is the odd one out. President Monica Long said earlier in November they have no timeline for an IPO — even after the SEC finally dropped its lawsuit against them.

The industry expected Ripple to jump on the IPO train once the regulatory heat cooled off, but as of Wednesday, still no filing from the XRP folks.