Cryptocurrency exchange operator Kraken said on Thursday that it has acquired NinjaTrader.
Based in the US, NinjaTrader is a futures broker and also offers retail and B2B clients an eponymous trading platform.
Kraken confirmed that it had paid $1.5bn to acquire the firm in its announcement.
This was equivalent to the company’s entire revenue last year, suggesting the crypto exchange still has a deep balance sheet.
There appear to be various synergies between the two businesses that would support Kraken’s decision to buy.
Various crypto firms, notably Crypto.com, are looking to expand into offering other products, like cash equities and exchange-traded derivatives.
NinjaTrader has licensing in the US to offer futures trading, whereas Kraken has licences in the UK, European Union, and Australia.
The result is that the two combined firms will be able to offer a comprehensive set of products in different markets globally.
“Traditional markets run on post-WWII, 1950s banking systems, exchanges that close at 4 p.m. ET and settlement delays that take days to resolve,” said Kraken Co-CEO Arjun Sethi.
“Crypto rails fixed these issues, operating with efficient and real-time infrastructure. But legacy finance and crypto have remained separate ecosystems, until today. This transaction is the first step in our vision of an institutional-grade trading platform where any asset can be traded, anytime.”
