The LSE Directory / Crypto exchanges
Kraken is a cryptocurrency exchange operated by Payward, Inc., founded in San Francisco in 2011. It offers spot trading in more than 560 digital assets, margin and futures trading, staking rewards, tokenized US stocks and ETFs through its xStocks product, an OTC desk for large trades, and the Krak app for spending and sending crypto via a linked debit card. Kraken Pro serves active traders with advanced order types and charting tools, while the standard Kraken app targets retail buyers and sellers of crypto. The firm differentiates itself through a security-first engineering culture and an early, aggressive push into regulated banking status. In 2020 its Kraken Financial unit became the first cryptocurrency firm to obtain a US bank charter, a Wyoming special purpose depository institution operating on a full-reserve model with liquid assets equal to or exceeding 100% of client fiat deposits. It also holds MiCA authorisation via the Central Bank of Ireland and a MiFID licence via CySEC, letting it passport crypto and investment services across the European Union. Institutional clients are served through dedicated custody and prime brokerage services, and its 2025 acquisition of futures platform NinjaTrader plus its 2026 acquisition of Bitnomial (below) extended that institutional reach into regulated US derivatives. Kraken was founded by Jesse Powell, Thanh Luu and Michael Gronager; Powell, who had consulted for Mt. Gox before its collapse, built the exchange around security controls learned from that failure. The company remains privately held. By early 2025 it reported roughly 15 million users, 2.6 million funded accounts, 42.8 billion dollars in client assets and 207 billion dollars in quarterly trading volume, with 2024 revenue of about 1.5 billion dollars. It raised 500 million dollars at a 15 billion dollar valuation in September 2025 and a further 800 million dollars at a 20 billion dollar valuation two months later, taking total primary funding to roughly 1.7 billion dollars. In 2023 Kraken paid a 30 million dollar settlement to the SEC over its unregistered US staking-as-a-service program; a separate SEC suit alleging it operated as an unregistered securities exchange was dropped in March 2025. In March 2026 Kraken Financial became the first digital-asset bank to receive a Federal Reserve master account, granting direct access to Fedwire and other US payment rails without an intermediary bank, following more than five years of regulatory engagement with the Fed and Wyoming regulators. Two months later Payward closed its up-to-550-million-dollar acquisition of derivatives exchange Bitnomial, gaining control of its futures broker, exchange and clearinghouse licenses (the CFTC's Designated Contract Market, Derivatives Clearing Organization and Futures Commission Merchant approvals) so it can run regulated crypto derivatives without relying on third-party venues. Kraken had confidentially filed a draft S-1 for a US IPO in November 2025, though reporting in March 2026 indicated the listing had been put on hold pending market conditions.
