Is Kraken’s funding worth more than $10 billion in Binance?

Jesse Powell’s Crypto Exchange Kraken is seeking $500 million at a $15 billion valuation, up 36% from the $11 billion valuation in 2022.

The price pins the Binance comp of Changpeng Zhao, the world’s largest crypto exchange, for over $100 billion.

Using the traditional price-to-selling (P/S) ratio, Kraken is seeking a 10x multiple of $1.5 billion in revenue in 2024. Powell hopes for that evaluation ahead of the first public offer (IPO) in 2026.

Unfortunately, Kraken has been seeking a $15 billion valuation over the years. As early as winter 2021, Powell was fundraising in the range of $10-20 billion.

Still, Kraken’s latest funding is creating new ways to peer analysis of the world’s largest crypto exchange.

Kraken, Binance’s latest evaluation tool

Domestic, Kraken is the second largest US crypto exchange after Coinbase, valued at $97 billion. Globally, Kraken is ranked 8th by trading volumes per Coingecko and 14th in each Binance Coinmarketcap.

For years, Crypto exchanges have been obscure from open market ratings as they have quietly run profitable companies. Kraken’s fundraising and Powell’s potential IPO create new ways of peer analysis.

At $15 billion, Kraken’s company rating represents a 10 times the revenue of $1.5 billion In 2024, Kraken reported trading volume of $665 billion for 2024.

In comparison, Binance generated $16.8 billion in revenue in 2024. That’s 11 times more than Kraken’s $1.5 billion. Interestingly, Bloomberg has fought Binance’s self-report figures, estimated corporate revenues of just $9.8 billion over the past 12 months.

Binance was processed in 2024 with only $7.4 trillion spot trading volume. That’s at least 11 times Kraken’s up to $665 billion.

Importantly, when Kraken filed an IPO, he must honestly report transaction volume and revenue under US financial disclosure regulations.

In contrast, Binance will not show plans to submit IPO documents, will not be headquartered in the US, and will not be obligated to comply with US accounting standards.

The USD-derived Kraken volume combination warped the share of US dollar trading volume on Binance. For many reasons, it is much easier for evaluation purposes, and is somewhat less reliable to generate and report stable and encrypted transactions.

Nevertheless, Binance is certainly much larger than Kraken.

On a customer base, Binance serves more than 275 million registered customers. 18 times more than Kraken’s 15 million.

Finally, Binance has an estimated 39% market share of all crypto exchanges per Coingecko. That’s 19 times the 2% of Kraken.

Summary of mathematics

To summarise the above metrics, both Binance’s corporate revenue and spot trading volume are 11 times higher than Kraken. Binance’s customer base and market share are around 18 times more.

Putting these numbers together, it’s safe to say that Binance is probably worth more than $100 billion. Choosing a multiplier of 11 or 18 at Kraken’s intended $15 billion valuation will easily surpass the $10 number.

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On the more conservative side, Bloomberg estimates Binance’s valuation of approximately $58 billion. Its staff’s methodology includes a 50% discount on discretionary, otherwise equivalent sales or revenue-derived valuations.

This is a particularly extraordinary choice given what Coinbase, smaller than Binance, admits. Published in the US market at a valuation of $97 billion.

In other words, Kraken’s latest rating is likely to refrain from a Binance rating of over $100 billion.