The world’s largest Bitcoin exchange by euro volume, Kraken, acquired New York City-based exchange Coinsetter and Canada’s first exchange, Cavirtex, on January 19, enabling an immediate expansion into the North American market.
In a related deal, Kraken also secured a strategic partnership with American payment provider SynapsePay, enabling institutional clients and individuals in 37 states to process domestic deposits and withdrawals in American dollars.
The acquisition of Coinsetter enabled Kraken to enter the U.S. market with ease, using the advanced trading infrastructure of Coinsetter including FIX, WebSockets and REST APIs for a low latency trading experience and its unique clientele. The Coinsetter platform has been providing Kraken users with Bitcoin security technologies such as SECURICOIN. Created by Coinsetter in 2014, SECURICOIN is an enterprise Bitcoin security solution designed to meet the demands of wall street institutions, by storing bitcoin funds in an offline wallet, that is completely detached from its online exchange.
With Kraken’s leading platform and global team, Coinsetter CEO Jaron Lukasiewicz stated that the acquisition will be beneficial both for users and Coinsetter staff members.
“I’m excited what our acquisition by Kraken means for Coinsetter and Cavirtex customers, who will all benefit from Kraken’s leading platform, global team and unparalleled customer service, Lukasiewicz told Businesswire. For years, the teams at Coinsetter and Cavirtex have worked closely with traders, Bitcoin companies and investors to advance the burgeoning Bitcoin space in North America. We are confident that Kraken is the right world-class company with the resources, vision and drive to successfully carry our torch far into the future.”
Despite Kraken’s dominance over the European Bitcoin market, the exchange has struggled to surpass the growth of leading American Bitcoin exchanges such as Coinbase and Gemini, which have shown rapid increase in the volume of USD-to-BTC trading pair.
With the resources of Coinsetter and its veteran staff members, Kraken CEO Jesse Powell said that the exchange will fully establish itself as the most trusted and secure Bitcoin exchange in the world, with exciting services and products planned for 2016.
“The acquisition of Coinsetter and Cavirtex marks the beginning of a new era for Kraken,” Powell told Businesswire. “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.”
Coinsetter is also one of the few exchanges which has been authorized to operate as a legal Bitcoin exchange in New York in August 2015, after successfully obtaining a “BitLicense” from the New York Department of Financial Services.
During this time, Lukasiewicz explained , “While we serve a global user base of Bitcoin traders, New York has long been Coinsetter’s home. We are happy to announce that Coinsetter will continue to be headquartered in New York City, a global capital of banking and financial technology, and to serve customers throughout New York State.”
The acquisition of Coinsetter has already begun to play a vital role in the global expansion of Kraken. On February 24, the Kraken team announced that the company has seen a 2x increase in the number of new accounts, with a growing number of U.S. customers switching to Kraken.
“Kraken has seen a more than 2x increase in the number of new accounts (not including the migrated accounts) since announcing our Coinsetter & Cavirtex acquisition and United States expansion into 37 states (plus Washington DC),” said the Kraken team.
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