By
Steve Muchoki
April 19th, 2024
The acquisition will allow Kraken to offer its exchange service to most Americans and Canadians.
San Francisco-based Kraken, founded in 2011, is now the largest Bitcoin exchange in euro volume and liquidity. It also trades Canadian dollars, US dollars, British pounds and Japanese yen. Kraken is highly-estimated by independent news media – it is consistently called the best and most secure Bitcoin exchange.
The company has been a pioneer in the bitcoin industry more than once. It was the first to have trading price and volume displayed on the Bloomberg Terminal, the first to pass a cryptographically verifiable proof-of-reserves audit, and is a partner in the first cryptocurrency bank.
Kraken has just announced two global accessions. It has acquired two large exchanges Coinsetter and Cavirtex to expand to prime North American markets. The official blog post makes it clear that Kraken is going to fully absorb both Coinsetter and Cavirtex brands.
Client accounts of both exchanges will be automatically transferred to Kraken’s cutting edge, low fee platform on January 26, 2016. Once transfer is completed, account holders will be directed to www.kraken.com to login, update account information if needed, and can begin trading immediately.
Coinsetter was founded in New York in 2012 and since then it has become one of the most prominent bitcoin exchanges in the USA. As its mission Coinsetter states making bitcoin safe and reliable for active users globally. The venture offers a Wall Street class bitcoin trading platform with easy-to-reach customer support.
“Coinsetter has a lot of synergies with us and it’s pretty clean,” Kraken Chief Executive Officer Jesse Powell said in an interview with Reuters. “There’s a lot of companies that you can do a deal with. But Coinsetter has certainly a cautious approach to the United States and it doesn’t have contingent liabilities hanging around its head and that’s pretty appealing to us.”
Cavirtex is the first bitcoin exchange in Canada. It was founded in 2011 and has worked hard to create one of the world’s safest and most reliable digital currency marketplaces. Cavirtex offers the best liquidity, comprehensive security measures and the most diverse and convenient funding methods in the country.
Having great goals, Kraken needs to increase volume and partners with SynapsePay in order to make depositing U.S. dollars on the platform easier. The partnership will allow USD deposits in 37 U.S. states and Washington D.C. for just $5. Thus for the first time Kraken opens an access to full suite of advanced exchange services, including seamless bitcoin-dollar (XBT/USD) trading, to most of Americans.
As an exclusive offer, Kraken offers free deposits for all American and Canadian clients, including Canadians living abroad, through March 1, 2016 – USD deposits are through payment provider SynapsePay and free CAD deposits are through payment provider Vogogo.
Jesse Powell said about Kraken’s plans: “The acquisition of Coinsetter and Cavirtex marks the beginning of a new era for Kraken. The consolidation of these three veteran giants is the largest exchange deal to date. Combined, we represent over thirteen years of bitcoin exchange experience in an industry that is only seven years old. Kraken has big, exciting plans for 2016. This year we will fully leverage what we’ve built as the world’s most trusted and secure bitcoin exchange. This is the year that we make long strides to capture key markets and crank up the volume. This is the year of the Kraken.”