Kraken has confidentially filed for an initial public offering, Co-CEO Arjun Sethi revealed Tuesday at the Semafor World Economy event in Washington, DC, marking a decisive step toward public markets for the U.S. crypto exchange.

Co-CEO Unveils Kraken’s Mission

Sethi said Kraken’s goal is to give customers access to advanced trading and “directional bets” that are often available only to institutions. He compared that aspiration to the kinds of quantitative and market infrastructure used by major names like Citadel, Jane Street, and JPMorgan. 

“What they want at the end of the day is what Citadel and Jane Street have, or JPMorgan has, and they want it accessible to them,” Sethi said. He added, “That’s our mission: How do we make all these products open. We want to be able to help enable what you want to do with your own capital.”

During the same appearance, Sethi also addressed broader concerns about technology—specifically, fears that artificial intelligence could significantly disrupt software-as-a-service businesses. 

According to Semafor’s report on the matter, he argued that those worries have been overstated. “There’s always a certain set of companies that get disrupted by technology, and that has continued to happen,” he said. 

He also noted that many modern businesses are already built on software, saying, “I also don’t think there are companies today that aren’t run by software in some ways, and so today we’re seeing AI just proliferating at a faster and faster pace.”

Deutsche Börse Deal

Kraken’s IPO filing comes on the heels of a major ownership move reported earlier on April 14. Deutsche Börse, the German exchange operator, said Tuesday that it acquired a $200 million stake in Kraken. 

The investment was made through the purchase of existing shares in a secondary market transaction, according to Reuters, and results in a fully diluted stake of 1.5%, Deutsche Börse said. 

Deutsche Börse said the new investment is intended to deepen that relationship. It described the expanded cooperation as covering regulated crypto, tokenized markets, and derivatives, along with improved liquidity for institutional clients across different geographies. 

Featured image from OpenArt, chart from TradingView.com