Kraken to buy NinjaTrader for $1.5bn

(Sharecast News) - Cryptocurrency exchange Kraken said on Thursday that it has agreed to buy retail futures trading platform NinjaTrader for $1.5bn. Kraken said the deal strengthens its position "as a 24/7, always-on technology platform built for professional traders, making it a leader in US futures for both traditional and crypto markets".

It also accelerates the company's multi-asset-class ambitions, which include plans for equities trading and payments.

Founded in 2003, NinjaTrader provides advanced futures trading tools to nearly 2 million traders and operates as a CFTC-registered Futures Commission Merchant (FCM). Kraken said this transaction marks the largest-ever deal combining traditional finance and crypto.

Kraken co-chief executive officer Arjun Sethi said: "Traditional markets run on banking systems from the 1950s and post-WWII, exchanges that close at 4 p.m. ET, and settlement delays that take days to resolve. Crypto rails fixed these issues, operating with efficient and real-time infrastructure. But legacy finance and crypto have remained separate ecosystems, until today.

"This transaction is the first step in our vision of an institutional-grade trading platform where any asset can be traded, anytime."