Cryptocurrency exchange Kraken acquires Crypto Facilities

The cryptocurrency exchange Kraken just pulled off its largest acquisition yet. Kraken is buying Crypto Facilities in a nine figure deal, at least a hundred million dollars.

Kraken

Kraken is a cryptocurrency exchange that operates in several countries and is especially active in the EU. Wikipedia describes

Kraken as follows: "Kraken is a US-based cryptocurrency exchange operating in Canada,[8][9] the EU,[4] Japan,[10] and the US, and "the world's largest bitcoin exchange in euro volume and liquidity".[11][12][13][14][15][10] Kraken provides Bitcoin pricing to the Bloomberg Terminal.[16] In April 2017, according to reports, Kraken launched fiat funding options to transfer denominated US dollars and government-issued currencies.[17]Throughout 2017, the Kraken exchange suffered from DDoS attacks and performance issues. In November 2017, Kraken CEO Jesse Powell apologized for the site issues, but praised security, citing its impeccable record.[18]" Kraken is named after a legendary beast somewhat like the real one depicted in the appended photo.

Kraken currently has 4 million users who traded the equivalent of $90 billion in 2018.

Crypto Facilities

Crypto Facilities is described as: "Crypto Facilities offers individuals and institutions regulated, transparent and secure trading 24/7/365. The firm is also the leading provider of cryptocurrency indices, calculating the CME CF Bitcoin Reference Rate and Real Time Index that power the CME Group’s Bitcoin Futures, and the CME CF Ether-Dollar Reference Rate and Ether-Dollar Real Time Index. Financial institutions, trading firms and data providers globally use Crypto Facilities’ indices and underlying data to optimise their cryptocurrency trading activity.

Crypto Facilities Ltd is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FRN 757895) and registered in England with registered number 9172128 and registered office at 25 Copthall Avenue, London EC2R 7BP, United Kingdom."

Crypto Facilities allows users of the exchange to trade futures on many different cryptocurrency pairs. With its acquisition of the company Kraken users will be able to have access to both spot and futures trading. Futures are limited to just six pairs as of now.

Kraken has made earlier buyouts

In the past Krakan has also bought out smaller exchanges including Coinsetter, Cavirtex, CleverCoin, Gildera, and Cryptowatch. While Coinbase is very popular in the US, Kraken is quite popular with European customers. Krakan does a large volume of business in the EU.

Kraken to obtain new funding

Fortune reports that Kraken is about to close a $100 million funding round. Instead of raising the money through venture capitalists, the usual route, Krakan is raising the money through emails to its most loyal customers. Using this method Krakan does not have to register the round with the US Securities Exchange Commission (SEC). Kraken has not provided any information about those investing during the new round although it is said to be working exclusively with accredited investors.

Previously published in Digital Jl