Cryptocurrency exchange Kraken will acquire futures trading platform NinjaTrader for $1.5 billion, narrowing the gap between traditional finance and crypto and marking the largest deal to date between the two sectors.
“We’ve never just been a crypto exchange. We’re creating the infrastructure for anyone — traders, developers, and partners — to engage with the future of finance,” Kraken co-CEO Arjun Sethi wrote Thursday in a post on social media platform X. “By bringing NinjaTrader into the Kraken ecosystem, we’re bridging traditional and crypto markets, expanding access to pro-grade trading tools, and opening new opportunities for innovation.”
Both entities benefit from the deal on the regulatory front. NinjaTrader’s Commodity Futures Trading Commission license will allow Kraken to offer crypto futures and derivatives in the U.S.; and Kraken’s licenses in the U.K., E.U. and Australia will bolster NinjaTrader’s growth in those markets.
Clients of both Kraken and NinjaTrader will be able to trade crypto, futures and traditional financial products.
The transaction is expected to close by the end of the second quarter. Following the close, NinjaTrader will continue operations as a stand-alone platform, and its clients will gain access to more trading opportunities in the future, Kraken said.
“NinjaTrader’s mission has been to redefine retail futures trading, making it more accessible, cost-effective and trader-friendly. Joining forces with Kraken allows us to take this vision to a global scale,” NinjaTrader CEO Marty Franchi said in a prepared statement.
The deal comes just weeks after the Securities and Exchange Commission dropped its case against Kraken, a move the exchange said “ends a wasteful, politically motivated campaign, lifts uncertainty that stifled innovation and investment, and clears the path toward a stable, forward-thinking regulatory regime.”
The commission had sued Kraken in November 2023, arguing the exchange allegedly commingled billions of dollars in customer and corporate funds, and allegedly operated an unregistered exchange, broker, dealer and clearing agency.
The SEC has dropped several cases against crypto firms of late, including Robinhood and Coinbase. Last week, it also abandoned its years-long case against Ripple, which CEO Brad Garlinghouse called “the first major shot fired in the war on crypto.”
Sethi credited President Donald Trump for being “the first pro-crypto U.S. president to help shift crypto from a partisan debate to a shared national interest.”
“His support set the stage for a broader, bipartisan push for blockchain innovation,” Sethi wrote on X. “Today, lawmakers from both sides are aligned on the need for clear, innovation-friendly crypto regulations.”
Trump, previously a critic of the nascent technology, has spent the last couple of years courting the crypto industry. He headlined the Bitcoin 2024 conference in Nashville, launched his own crypto project and memecoin, and has named several pro-crypto regulators.
He inked an executive order in January embracing stablecoins and announced the creation of a strategic crypto reserve this month, calling for the U.S. to become “the Crypto Capital of the World.”
Sethi mirrored those sentiments in his comments on X.
“Kraken is and always will be pro-crypto, pro-innovation, and pro-America,” he wrote. “The U.S. should be the best place in the world to build the future of finance, and we’re committed to making that happen.”
