Kraken parent Payward revenue rises 17% as trading volume falls in Q2
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Kraken's parent company wins $22 million arbitration case against auditing firm Mazars.
Odaily that Kraken's parent company, Payward, has won an arbitration against its former auditing firm, Mazars USA, with the arbitrator ruling that Mazars must pay Payward $22 million. Payward is currently seeking confirmation of the arbitration award and a final judgment from the Delaware Court of Chancery. The controversy stemmed from the peak of "Operation Choke Point 2.0" in 2022. Payward claims that Mazars abruptly withdrew from an audit of Kraken that was nearly complete, without finding any problems with the company, but this move damaged Kraken's reputation and forced it to spend years and significant legal fees clarifying its situation. Payward co-CEO Arjun Sethi stated that auditing is not a "gift" for crypto companies, but rather a critical infrastructure for maintaining trust with banks, licenses, counterparties, and regulators. An auditing firm withdrawing without finding anything negative leaves the company unjustly shrouded in suspicion. "Operation Choke Point 2.0" is the crypto industry's term for the regulatory pressure exerted during the Biden administration, referring to the informal pressure exerted by US regulators on banks to restrict services to crypto businesses after the FTX collapse. Sethi stated that the US FDIC sent at least 25 letters to 24 banks, demanding that they suspend or avoid expanding their crypto-related businesses. This ruling is also seen as a legal counterattack by the crypto industry against such regulatory pressure.
Midday Review: Shanghai Composite Index falls over 1%, dropping below 4000 points; Trading volume in both Shanghai and Shenzhen markets shrinks by over 570 billion yuan in the first half of the day.
According to Mars Finance, the market fluctuated and adjusted in the morning session, with the Shanghai Composite Index falling below the 4,000-point mark. The divergence between the yellow and white lines was obvious, with small and mid-cap stocks generally declining, and the micro-cap index falling by more than 3%. The combined turnover of the Shanghai and Shenzhen stock exchanges in the first half of the day was 1.63 trillion yuan, a decrease of 575.7 billion yuan compared to the previous trading day. Market hotspots were scattered, with over 4,700 stocks declining across the market. In terms of sectors, the semiconductor industry chain bucked the trend and strengthened, with semiconductor silicon wafer concepts performing actively, and Yanyou Silicon hitting the 20cm daily limit. The computing power chip concept fluctuated and rose, with Muxi Shares rising over 15%, and Wantong Development achieving two consecutive daily limits. The advanced packaging concept fluctuated and rebounded, with Dagang Shares and Huatian Technology hitting the daily limit. On the downside, the innovative drug concept fluctuated and declined, with Hainan Haiyao hitting the daily limit down. The non-ferrous metals sector weakened, with Huaxi Nonferrous Metals hitting the daily limit down, and Xiaocheng Technology, Hunan Baiyin, and many other stocks falling sharply. At the close, the Shanghai Composite Index fell 1.04%, the Shenzhen Component Index fell 1.02%, and the ChiNext Index fell 0.78%. (Cailian Press)
Report: TradeFi contract trading volume accounted for 11% of total contract trading volume in the first five months of 2026.
According to a recent stablecoin industry report released by Binance Research on July 8th, in the first five months of 2026, TradeFi-related perpetual contracts accounted for approximately 11% of the total perpetual contract trading volume, with a cumulative trading value exceeding $1.1 trillion. Binance's trading value exceeded $500 billion, representing a market share of approximately 47%.
RWA perpetual contract trading volume surpassed $100 billion for the first time in June, setting a new record.
PANews reported on July 8 that, according to Cointelegraph, DefiLlama data shows that RWA perpetual contract trading volume exceeded $100 billion for the first time in June, setting a new record.
Ondo Perps' public beta launch saw $100 million in trading volume within 24 hours.
Odaily Odaily that Ondo Perps achieved a trading volume of $100 million within 24 hours of its public beta launch, with thousands of traders participating since then. Built on Ondo Finance technology, Ondo Perps is a platform that allows users to directly use tokenized stocks and ETF holdings as margin for perpetual contracts, offering non-US investors up to 20x leverage and covering popular assets such as Tesla (TSLA), Nvidia (NVDA), and Apple (AAPL), as well as commodities like gold and silver.
Sources say Kraken is seeking a full European banking license in Lithuania.
PANews reported on July 8th that, according to CoinDesk, sources familiar with the matter revealed that cryptocurrency exchange Kraken is seeking a full banking license in Europe, with Lithuania as the jurisdiction for obtaining the license. If approved, Kraken would become the only crypto exchage holding such a license, following the same regulatory path as fintech giant Revolut (which received a specialized banking license from the Bank of Lithuania in 2018), enabling it to offer services such as current accounts, consumer loans, and stock trading in the European Economic Area. This move is part of Kraken's parent company Payward's global licensing strategy.