Payward, the parent of Kraken, reported third-quarter total platform margin (TPM) of $487 million on November 13. This new lead figure rose 12% from the $436 million reported for the second quarter but fell 12% compared to the third quarter of 2025. Management now shows Adjusted Revenue only "for comparison purposes only" because they "no longer uses Adjusted Revenue to evaluate our business results."
The new metric and its components
The TPM calculation subtracts both the cost of crypto Payward delivers to buyers and the staking rewards it pays to clients. Asset-based and access-based TPM, which represent earnings on client balances and fees paid by clients or partners to use services, comprised 52% of the total against 46% a year earlier. This shift ignores the previous lead metric, Adjusted Revenue, which reached $553 million in the third quarter.
| Metric | Q3 Value | Comparison |
|---|---|---|
| Total Platform Margin | $487 million | Up 12% from Q2; down 12% from Q3 2025 |
| Adjusted EBITDA | $60 million | Up from $23 million in Q2; down from $181 million in Q3 2025 |
| Transaction Volume | $353 billion | Up 22% from Q2; down 30% from Q3 2025 |
| Funded Accounts | 7.1 million | Up 7% from Q2; up 37% from Q3 2025 |
Performance and transaction data
Payward’s platforms handled $353 billion in transactions, representing a 30% drop from the same period in 2025. While funded accounts grew 37% over the previous year to 7.1 million, the company’s Adjusted EBITDA fell sharply to $60 million from $181 million a year earlier. Payward also added more than 200 UK and EU names to xStocks, its tokenized stocks service, this week. These figures fall outside generally accepted accounting principles, and the company did not state that the release was audited.
