Kraken, the US cryptocurrency exchange headquartered in Wyoming, announced the confidential filing of a draft registration statement for a proposed initial public offering, following months of speculation among many in the cryptocurrency and blockchain industry.

In a Wednesday notice, Kraken said it had confidentially submitted a Form S-1 with the US Securities and Exchange Commission for a proposed IPO of its common stock, setting the groundwork for the company to go public. The potential IPO is subject to review by the SEC, which recently returned to full operations and staffing after a 43-day government shutdown. 

The filing came less than a week after Kraken co-CEO Arjun Sethi gave an interview in which he said the exchange wasn’t “rac[ing] to the door as quickly as possible” to go public. Reports had been circulating since 2024 suggesting that Kraken was planning an IPO, but the company had largely not responded to the speculation until Wednesday.

Other US-based crypto exchanges like Gemini went public in 2025, while Coinbase was one of the early movers, having an IPO in 2021. On Thursday, Grayscale Investments announced its own Form S-1 filing, about four months after the asset manager had filed confidentially for an IPO.

Related: Grayscale submits confidential IPO filing with SEC

The proposed IPO came less than 24 hours after the exchange announced its valuation had reached $20 billion, following an $800 million raise across two funding rounds in 2025. Kraken did not mention plans for going public at the time.

Ripple is still reportedly on the fence about IPO

Among large US-based crypto companies, Ripple Labs stands out for having no plans to go public. Monica Long, president of Ripple, reportedly said earlier in November that the company had no timeline for an IPO.

The report followed the SEC winding down its lawsuit against Ripple, which was filed in December 2020. Many in the industry speculated that the company would make plans for an IPO without the threat of additional regulatory actions, but as of Wednesday, no one at Ripple appeared to have publicly announced any filing.

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