Legal Battle Erupts: Kraken Accuses PowerTrade of $7M Asset Seizure
Payward, the parent entity of Kraken, alleges that derivatives platform PowerTrade manipulated account balances to convert a $7 million surplus into a $2 million debt through retroactive trade reversals.
Updated Jun 25, 2026, 1:55 p.m. Published Jun 25, 2026, 1:53 p.m.
Key Developments in the Kraken vs. PowerTrade Dispute
- Payward has petitioned a U.S. federal court to compel financial institutions to disclose information regarding PowerTrade and its leadership.
- Kraken asserts that these legal maneuvers are essential to track down misappropriated assets and prevent further industry-wide misconduct.
Payward, the corporate parent of the major cryptocurrency exchange Kraken, has initiated formal legal proceedings against PowerTrade, a derivatives platform headquartered in the United Arab Emirates. The core of the dispute involves allegations that PowerTrade’s leadership engaged in the illicit seizure of approximately $7.2 million in digital assets and projected earnings belonging to Kraken.
“PowerTrade and its founders effectively misappropriated $7.2 million in digital holdings and unrealized gains from Payward. Our current legal actions are focused on the recovery of these funds,” a representative for Kraken stated in correspondence.
To bolster its case, Payward has submitted a request to a U.S. federal court, seeking discovery orders against various domestic financial entities. This move is designed to uncover financial trails linked to PowerTrade and its co-founders, providing the necessary evidence to support ongoing litigation.
Allegations of Retroactive Trade Manipulation
The legal filing outlines a sophisticated scheme in which PowerTrade allegedly siphoned over $6 million from Payward’s account. According to the complaint, the platform executed a series of unilateral, unauthorized adjustments to the account ledger.
The lawsuit contends that PowerTrade retroactively voided profitable trades that had already reached settlement months prior. By artificially erasing these gains, the platform allegedly manufactured a fictitious negative balance, providing a pretext to seize Payward’s collateral. This tactic is akin to a bank suddenly declaring a customer’s long-settled mortgage as “unpaid” to justify the seizure of the underlying property.
“We have successfully secured an interim worldwide freezing order from the Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC) Courts against PowerTrade and its executives, and we are pursuing additional legal avenues across multiple jurisdictions,” the Kraken spokesperson confirmed.
Liquidity Concerns and Market Volatility
The relationship between the two firms dates back to 2022, when Kraken began utilizing PowerTrade-led by CEO Mario Gomez Lozada and CFO Bernd Sischka-for institutional derivatives trading. However, the partnership soured in October 2025 during a period of significant Bitcoin price volatility.
As market conditions deteriorated, Kraken grew increasingly wary of PowerTrade’s solvency and credit risk. When the exchange attempted to withdraw its capital, it was met with resistance. Instead of facilitating the withdrawal, the lawsuit alleges that PowerTrade implemented roughly 100
