Kraken Parent Seeks Court Records on PowerTrade in $7.2 Million Dispute

Payward, parent of cryptocurrency exchange Kraken, filed an application with a U.S. -based financial institutions about PowerTrade and its co-founders. The filing states that PowerTrade and its co-founders misappropriated $7.2 million of Payward’s digital assets and unrealized gains.

According to the document, PowerTrade changed Kraken’s account from a positive balance of around $7 million to a roughly $2 million deficit through about 100 unauthorized corrections on trades that had expired or settled months earlier. Payward obtained an interim worldwide freezing order from the DIFC Courts against PowerTrade and its co-founders and has started other legal proceedings in additional jurisdictions, a Kraken spokesperson said.

Kraken began institutional cryptocurrency derivatives trading on PowerTrade in 2022.

The platform is based in the U.A.E. and operated out of El Salvador; it was co-founded by CEO Mario Gomez Lozada and CFO Bernd Sischka. In October 2025, after bitcoin prices fell, Kraken grew concerned about PowerTrade’s liquidity and attempted to withdraw funds.

The filing alleges that PowerTrade instead executed the corrections to manufacture a negative balance and appropriate Payward’s bitcoin collateral. "The discovery we seek will help Payward identify additional assets to freeze and ensure that bad actors like PowerTrade are not able to harm others in the industry," the Kraken spokesperson said.

PowerTrade did not respond to a request for comment by press time.