Kraken is about to IPO. What are the targets that can be speculated on?

Kraken's financing reignites IPO expectations, which targets should be followed.

Written by: kkk

On July 30, news emerged that the cryptocurrency trading platform Kraken is seeking to raise approximately $500 million at a valuation of $15 billion, drawing significant market attention. This news comes as the U.S. regulatory environment gradually warms up: in March 2025, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) officially withdrew its securities violation charges against Kraken, and just last week, Fortune magazine revealed that the FBI has also concluded its investigation into Kraken's founders, allowing Kraken to break free from multiple regulatory shadows. Meanwhile, Kraken's official social media has frequently hinted at a potential listing plan, further stimulating market imagination.

Previously, after CRCL completed its IPO in June, it reached a peak increase of up to 10 times, providing a strong contrast to market expectations. If Kraken successfully goes public, it may trigger another wave of emotional climax – worth following is: which targets will become the "speculative pioneers" in this feast?

Pre-IPO investment frenzy is coming, and retail investors can also jump ahead of the listing.

As top companies like OpenAI and SpaceX maintain their privatization for a long time, many original employees and early investors hope to cash out their shares before going public. Forge is precisely the trading market that connects these "sellers" with the investors who "want to buy in advance." Now that the market expectation for Kraken's IPO is heating up, if its employees or institutions start selling shares, private equity trading platforms like Forge may become an indirect entry point for retail investors to place their bets.

On the Forge platform, investors can typically purchase shares in unlisted companies in two ways: the first is through direct trading, where you find a holder willing to sell Kraken equity and negotiate a price. Forge will assist in completing the KYC, due diligence, and contract signing processes. The second method is through SPV trading (Forge Funds), where Forge establishes a dedicated Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) to pool buyer funds and collectively purchase equity in the target company. What you hold is a share of the SPV, not the company's stock itself. This method bypasses the ROFR and is more suitable for investors looking to enter the market quickly, with transactions potentially completed in just a few days. Once Kraken truly goes public, the SPV is also expected to gain liquidity for cashing out.

The current price on the Forge platform is $36.13, with an increase of up to 200% over the past year, reflecting the market's enthusiasm for Kraken's expected listing. The valuation is about $10 billion, and if Kraken can successfully go public with a valuation of $15 billion, current entrants may achieve over 50% excess returns.

In addition, the tokenization of private equity is also bringing new investment opportunities to retail investors, including platforms like Republic and Robinhood that have supported technology companies such as OpenAI and SpaceX. Whether they will also support Kraken in the future is also worth following.

Ink Becomes the Core of the Next Round of L2 Narrative, Benchmarking Coinbase's Base Chain

After Coinbase launched the Base chain as the traffic hub of the Layer 2 sector, Kraken has also officially entered the arena, firing the first shot of its Layer 2 strategy with the Ink network. Ink is a Layer 2 blockchain built on the Ethereum OP Stack, featuring high throughput, low latency, and native compatibility with the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM). It aims to become the DeFi hub on the Superchain, providing solid underlying support for future trading, payments, and on-chain financial infrastructure. The network is spearheaded by Kraken, and its native token $INK will be issued by the subsidiary Ink Foundation and distributed to eligible active users and ecosystem participants through an airdrop program on the Kraken trading platform. Although specific distribution criteria and timelines have not yet been announced, this news has already become the focal point of the market.

On June 17, the Ink Foundation announced that the total supply of $INK will be permanently capped at 1 billion tokens, with no additional issuance and no governance rights, intended solely for ecological incentives and user-level usage, positioning it more as a "fuel" attribute rather than a traditional governance token. The first explicit application scenario is the native liquidity protocol powered by Aave, which is a key part of Ink's push for an on-chain capital stack. This protocol will natively integrate lending mechanisms onto the Ink chain, providing users with efficient and convenient on-chain capital scheduling services.

Kraken co-CEO Arjun Sethi stated that Ink's mission is to deeply integrate "production-grade on-chain systems" into the Kraken product ecosystem, driving a strategic migration of centralized platforms towards on-chain financial systems. The Ink Foundation's board referred to this as "a pivotal moment," believing that the launch of Ink marks the beginning of the fusion between CeFi and DeFi, as well as a substantial step towards the vision of a unified global capital market.

With the official launch of the mainnet, the ecosystem of Ink has taken shape. The platform has opened the memecoin launch tool Inkypump, and the first mascot token $ANITA once surged to a market value of 8 million USD, currently stabilizing around 4 million USD. Although the TGE of $INK has not been announced yet, the success cases of projects like Base and other L2 projects have stimulated strong expectations for Ink's potential in the market.

With reference to the rapid ascent of Base chain in ecological activity, TVL, and the number of projects, as well as the performance of ecological tokens such as $VIRTUAL and $ZORA built around it, Ink, which has direct endorsement from the Kraken team and will inherently bring traffic and resource tilt, undoubtedly has the potential to become the next hot L2 mainline. It can be anticipated that once $INK starts circulation and opens for trading in the future, it will inevitably become one of the "orthodox" representatives under the CeFi hype narrative, especially against the backdrop of Kraken's intention to deeply bind its trading capabilities with on-chain scenarios. Ink is not just an L2; it may also become the on-chain strategic core of Kraken. For investors looking to position themselves ahead of the Kraken IPO and the next wave of L2 hotspots, Ink and its ecological targets are worth paying close attention to.

Summary

In addition to cryptocurrency trading and Layer 2 network development, Kraken has also been actively expanding its broader financial landscape. In 2025, Kraken made a significant acquisition of the leading U.S. retail futures trading platform Ninja Trader for $1.5 billion, obtaining the status of a futures commission merchant and officially entering the derivatives market regulated by the CFTC, thus establishing a key channel between CeFi and TradFi. At the same time, Kraken launched the payment application Krak, supporting real-time reward transfers for over 300 cryptocurrency and fiat assets, with plans to expand into lending and credit card services in the future, creating a comprehensive cryptocurrency payment experience. This series of developments not only lays the foundation for Kraken to build a super financial platform but is also seen as an important prelude to its long-anticipated IPO plan. With the expansion of its product line, revenue growth, and the continuous improvement of the regulatory environment, Kraken's pace towards an official listing is accelerating.