Kraken rolled out a new product this week: Kraken Prop, a retail prop-trading program built directly into its exchange. Launched May 27, it’s the first major crypto exchange to offer an evaluation-based model where traders pay to prove their skills, then get funded with up to $200,000 — and keep as much as 90% of the profits. The program runs inside Kraken Pro and is operated by a Kraken subsidiary, Payward Oceanic Ltd.
How Kraken Prop works
The mechanics borrow heavily from Breakout, a firm Kraken bought in September 2025 to power this product. Traders pick from six wallet tiers, ranging from $5,000 to $200,000. The evaluation fee starts at $20 — non-refundable but credited back on the first payout under Breakout’s old terms. Pass the test, and funding lands within roughly 12 to 24 hours. After that, payouts are on-demand and settle in USDC within a day.
The standard profit split is 80%. Pay an extra 20% of the base fee, and it jumps to 90%. No time limit, no consistency rule, no profit cap, no strategy restrictions. Markets include 60-plus crypto pairs traded as perpetuals — BTC, ETH, and altcoins. Maximum leverage sits at 5x (5:1 on BTC/ETH, 2:1 on altcoins).
Building via M&A
Kraken Prop is the latest product from an aggressive two-year buying spree. Since early 2025, the exchange has spent roughly $2 billion on acquisitions: NinjaTrader for $1.5 billion (announced March 2025), Bitnomial for $550 million (announced April 2026), plus tuck-ins like Small Exchange, Capitalise.ai, and Reap. The Breakout deal closed in September 2025.
The spending was fueled by a hefty $800 million raise in November 2025 at a $20 billion valuation. Investors included Jane Street, DRW Venture Capital, HSG, Citadel Securities, and Deutsche Börse. Kraken also posted $1.5 billion in revenue for 2024, and Q3 2025 revenue hit $648 million — up 50% quarter-over-quarter — with adjusted EBITDA around $178.6 million on platform volume near $577 billion. Kraken’s co-CEOs, Arjun Sethi and David Ripley, guided toward $2.5 billion-plus in revenue for 2025.
The regulatory side
Kraken Prop is described as unregulated. That’s a notable detail for a company that confidentially filed its S-1 with the SEC in November 2025, aiming for a Q1 2026 IPO — then paused those plans due to market conditions. The timing isn’t great: launching an unregulated product while waiting for the right moment to go public could invite more scrutiny. But Kraken has long walked a line between retail-friendly products and regulatory compliance.
The exchange hasn’t said when it might refile or go public. For now, the focus is on getting traders to take the test — and keeping them trading inside Kraken’s walls.
