Kraken’s US derivatives launch reflects broader ‘unified access’ trend
The offering of CME-listed crypto futures via Kraken Pro follows the company’s acquisition of NinjaTrader
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Kraken’s latest US offering reflects a theme we’ve seen again and again this year: building out a one-stop shop and/or multi-asset trading platform and/or unified investing experience. (I’ll let you pick the buzzy marketing language.)
The crypto exchange in May closed on its acquisition of NinjaTrader — a company with a CFTC-registered FCM license that allows Kraken to offer crypto derivatives in the US.
A couple months later, here we are: CME-listed crypto futures available via Kraken Pro. The company plans to offer commodity, fixed income, FX and equity futures later this year.
Crypto giants realize the value of the derivatives market. It’s a higher-margin business segment (i.e. compared to spot trading) that they’ll look to expand as trading fees are compressed, Architect Partners’ Michael Klena previously told me.
I’m sure you recall Coinbase revealing its intent to buy Deribit for $2.9 billion. Unlike Kraken’s buy, that acquisition was more about extending its derivatives footprint outside the US.
But the broader goal for these industry behemoths is the same. Offer traders “seamless access” (I’ve read one too many press releases) to as many exposures as possible: spot, options, futures, etc.
That’s now extended further to include tokenized stocks and ETFs — though the current iteration of certain offerings (Kraken’s xStocks and Robinhood’s stock tokens) means owning tokens that follow the underlying’s price — not the actual stock or ETF.
Dinari chief business officer Anna Wroblewska envisions the “cross-asset opportunities” if NYSE-, CBOE- and CME-linked assets, for example, unified (there’s that word again) in one place that all market participants could access.
Dare to dream — particularly as movement on the crypto legislation front could mean the industry is closer to such a reality.
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