Kraken Launches US-Regulated Derivatives Offering Powered by NinjaTrader

Kraken launched a U.S.-regulated derivatives offering, enabling U.S. clients to trade cryptocurrency futures alongside the company’s existing spot market offering.

The new Kraken Derivatives US will initially provide these clients with access to crypto futures listed on the CME, the company said in a Tuesday (July 15) press release.

The offering features instant funding for the transfer of collateral, a unified interface and a regulated environment backed by Kraken’s infrastructure, according to the release.

“Kraken Derivatives US further enriches our unified trading experience, where digital and traditional assets can be accessed side-by-side without compromising on features, performance or liquidity,” Kraken Head of Exchange Shannon Kurtas said in the release.

The launch of this offering follows Kraken’s acquisition of U.S. retail futures platform NinjaTrader in March. Kraken said in Tuesday’s press release that the acquisition will help it expand its derivatives offering to include commodity, fixed income, foreign exchange (FX) and equity futures later this year.

It was reported March 20 that Kraken acquired NinjaTrader for $1.5 billion to broaden Kraken’s reach beyond digital assets and attract a larger user base.

At the time of the acquisition, NinjaTrader catered to nearly 2 million retail traders. It will continue to operate as an independent entity under Kraken.

In the Tuesday press release, NinjaTrader CEO Martin Franchi said that the collaboration on Kraken Derivatives US marks the companies’ first step in expanding access to additional products and markets.

“NinjaTrader is proud to power Kraken’s push into U.S. exchange-based derivatives, democratizing sophisticated trading products and connecting more participants to the world’s leading trading venues,” Franchi said.

Meanwhile, Kraken and Backed said Wednesday (July 9) that they expanded the availability of their tokenized U.S. equities offering by partnering with blockchain ecosystem BNB Chain.

The companies said this offering provides users outside the U.S. with on-chain access to tokenized U.S. equities.

Kraken began the rollout of this offering, which is powered by Backed’s xStocks, on June 30, saying it began listing 60 different tokenized assets in its app at that time and plans to expand the number of available assets over time.