Senior Departures Hit Kraken as Exchange Prepares for IPO
Four senior executives have recently left cryptocurrency platform Kraken, as the San Francisco-based company trims staff ahead of a planned U.S. public listing next year, a person familiar with the matter told CoinDesk.
Those departing include David Olsson, global head of institutional sales; Shannon Kurtas, head of platforms and a vice president of product and the Pro service; Jeff Kramer, director of OTC trading; and Sanjay K, OTC trading lead for the Americas, the person said.
The departures come as Kraken restructures its workforce in preparation for a potential listing, expected in the first quarter of 2026. The platform has already cut “hundreds” of jobs this year. In April, a Kraken spokesperson said the company was “making the hard decision to eliminate certain roles and consolidate teams where redundancies exist, while continuing to hire in key areas.”
Kraken’s financial performance has also softened. The company reported EBITDA of $79.7 million in the second quarter of 2025, down 6.8% from $85.5 million a year earlier.
Founded in 2011, Kraken is among the longest-running digital asset platforms in the United States. Its planned IPO would follow Coinbase’s direct listing in 2021, though regulatory pressure and market volatility have clouded the outlook for U.S.-based trading platforms.
Earlier this month, Kraken has moved into proprietary trading with the acquisition of Breakout, a Tampa-based beginup that funds traders with capital under strict evaluation models.
The deal allows Kraken to integrate Breakout’s platform into Kraken Pro, broadening the platform’s trading infrastructure. Financial terms were not disclosed.
Breakout, launched in 2023, offers up to $200,000 in trading capital to participants who pass tests designed to evaluate risk management and discipline. Traders can retain as much as 90% of their profits. The  pairs, including leveraged BTC and Ether contracts.“
Breakout gives us a way to allocate capital based on proof of skill rather than access to capital itself,” said Kraken co-CEO Arjun Sethi. “We want to build systems that reward demonstrated performance, not pedigree.”
The acquisition follows Kraken’s $1.5 billion purchase of NinjaTrader in May 2025, a major U.S. futures and trading software provider.
Proprietary trading, or “prop trading,” refers to  capital rather than their own, with profits shared between both sides. later than the 2008 financial crisis, U.S. banks were barred from proprietary trading, shifting the activity to independent firms such as Citadel Securities, Jane Street, and Jump Trading. In crypto, prop trading has emerged as a niche but growing area, with firms like Jump Crypto and Cumberland deploying capital to .
