Kraken Pauses IPO Plans Amid Slumping Crypto Markets

Cryptocurrency exchange Kraken has paused its initial public offering (IPO) plans until market conditions improve, CoinDesk reported Wednesday (March 18), citing unnamed sources.

The move came four months after Kraken confidentially filed for an IPO with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and announced an $800 million funding round that valued it at $20 billion, according to the report.

Since then, the downturn in crypto markets that began in October has continued and made companies more cautious about going public due to weaker investor sentiment, per the report.

Asked about the report by CoinDesk, a Kraken spokesperson said: “As we announced in November, we filed confidentially with the SEC, and that is all we can really share.”

The only crypto company to go public so far in 2026, BitGo, has seen its stock price drop 44% amid the current market environment, according to the report.

Tokenization firm Securitize still plans to go public, and it expects to do so as soon as it gets the green light from the SEC, Securitize Founder and CEO Carlos Domingo told CoinDesk.

“We already raised $225 million through a PIPE as part of our SPAC merger when market conditions were better and interest in tokenization continues to be strong in spite of market conditions,” Domingo said, per the report.

It was reported in December that as the downturn in the cryptocurrency market worsened, the selloff of bitcoin was affecting other forms of crypto and hurting stocks tied to the digital asset sector.

On March 1, it was reported that retail investors are leaving the cryptocurrency sector and that the speculative demand that once centered around crypto has shifted into stocks. Retail investors have been steadily shifting toward equities since late 2024, and that trend sped up following last October’s cryptocurrency crash.

The downturn began at the end of a year in which the number and value of acquisitions and IPOs in the cryptocurrency sector had surged, driven by the Trump administration’s favorable stance toward the industry. There were 11 crypto IPOs worldwide in 2025, up from four the previous year, and they raised $14.6 billion, up from $310 million in 2024.