Leading crypto exchange Kraken decided to end the year with a bang, striking one of the biggest crypto deals of 2021. The trading platform announced acquiring non-custodial crypto staking firm Staked for an unspecified amount to enhance its existing staking features and to step up its product offering game by empowering clients with more options to manage their funds. Staked would be Kraken’s fifth acquisition in 2021. Speaking more on the acquisition, Jesse Powell, CEO, and co-founder of Kraken noted,
“We are excited to add Staked to our portfolio of yield products, which has seen great uptake by a growing population of crypto investors. Staked is highly complementary to our existing staking business and will allow us to further strengthen our product offering through world-class infrastructure for clients who prefer to retain custody of their staked assets. We’re excited to welcome Staked’s clients to Kraken.”
According to the P.R, the trading platform has witnessed an overall growth of more than 430% so far this year, around the same time, its staking services have increased by a staggering 950% in November. This resulted in staking rewards worth nearly $500 million reach directly to its investors.
Kraken’s US expansion
Kraken joined other players in the U.S. market to provide crypto staking services. For instance, leading investment firm Galaxy digital acquired BitGO in May 2021 and Coinbase rolled out its staking service back in 2020. Having said that, the fourth largest crypto exchange expressed interest to go public via a direct listing in 2022 after bitcoin’s rally led to skyrocketing trading volumes. In addition to that, it had also envisaged its interest after its rival Coinbase’s decision to go public in April 2021.
As the trading platform headed into the second decade since its inception back in 2011, chief exec Jesse Powell stated that the firm would continue to add support and further its goals in Web3 technology, decentralized finance or DeFi, etc. In fact its incubation arm, Kraken Ventures recently raised $65 Million to invest across the crypto & fintech ecosystem such as Web3, DeFi, consumer crypto protocols as well as enabling technologies, like AI and Machine Learning.
