Kraken to Buy NinjaTrader for $1.5B to Enter U.S. Crypto Futures Market

Crypto exchange Kraken said it agreed to buy U.S. futures platform NinjaTrader for $1.5 billion to add crypto futures and derivatives trading in the U.S.

NinjaTrader, a CFTC-licensed platform founded in 2003, provides futures trading tools to almost 2 million customers. Kraken has 15 million clients globally, it said in a Thursday release. Kraken's U.K, EU and Australian licenses will allow Chicago-based NinjaTrader to expand in those regions.

Kraken is looking to carve out a bigger slice of the crypto derivatives market. The exchange's 24-hour derivatives trading volume sits at around $1.2 billion, well behind exchanges like Binance and OKX, which are both well into the 10s of billions, according to CoinMarketCap data. Last month, CoinDesk, citing people familiar with the plan, reported that Kraken was in talks to buy options exchange Deribit at value of as much as $5 billion.

"This transaction is the first step in our vision of an institutional-grade trading platform where any asset can be traded, anytime,” said Arjun Sethi, Kraken’s co-CEO.

Earlier this month the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) dropped a November 2023 lawsuit that alleged the San Francisco-based exchange comingled customer and corporate funds and acted as an unregistered securities broker.

Kraken reintroduced staking for U.S. customers in January, which in conjunction with acquiring a CFTC-licensed trading platform in NinjaTrader, may be indicative of a greater focus on the U.S. market in light of a developing regulatory regime under the Trump administration.

The transaction, which is subject to closing conditions, is expected to be complete by the end of the first half of 2025.

The Wall Street Journal reported the transaction earlier, citing people familiar with the matter.

UPDATE (March 20, 12:37 UTC): Adds derivatives trading volume, Deribit talks in third paragraph, SEC lawsuit in fifth.