Kraken Operator Payward’s Second-Quarter Operating Profit Plunges 71%

Payward, the operator of digital-asset exchange Kraken, reported weak second-quarter results.

Bloomberg reported on August 14 that Payward’s second-quarter operating profit plunged 71% from a year earlier to $23 million.

Revenue rose 17% to $508 million. Total trading volume on the platform, however, fell 18% to $310 billion.

The weak performance was attributed to falling digital-asset prices and a broader decline in market trading activity. Digital-asset exchanges depend primarily on trading fees for revenue, leaving them directly exposed to lower volumes. Bitcoin is down about 50% from the record high it reached in October last year.

Arjun Sethi, Payward’s co-chief executive officer, said futures, equities and tokenized-stock trading grew even as spot trading volume declined across the industry. He added that the company’s spot-market share expanded for a third straight quarter.