Kraken Shatters Barriers: Launches First U.S.-Regulated Crypto Derivatives Platform
Wall Street's worst nightmare just got a trading pair. Kraken—the exchange that laughs at SEC subpoenas—just flipped the switch on federally approved crypto derivatives.
No more offshore sketchiness. No more 'not your keys, not your coins' panic. The crypto old guard finally gets its CME moment.
Compliance as a competitive weapon
While rivals drown in regulatory gray areas, Kraken's playing chess. Their CFTC-approved setup lets traders short Bitcoin with the same paperwork as soybeans futures. Ironic, given crypto was supposed to kill these middlemen.
The institutional floodgates creak open
Pension funds and hedge funds—the same suits who called crypto a scam in 2018—now get one-click access to leveraged altcoin bets. The hypocrisy would be beautiful if it wasn't so predictable.
Kraken just turned the 'wild west' narrative to dust. Whether this legitimizes crypto or just gives regulators more targets? Place your bets—responsibly, of course.
Expansion efforts to include commodity, fixed income
While Kraken Derivatives US initially offers crypto futures trading, the exchange plans to expand support to commodities, fixed income, foreign exchange, and equity futures.
“Kraken Derivatives US further enriches our unified trading experience, where digital and traditional assets can be accessed side by side without compromising on features, performance or liquidity,” Kurtas added.
The derivatives feature for U.S. users comes a few months after Kraken’s debut of commission-free equities trading for users in the country.
Kraken hit the milestone in April, with its MOVE bringing more than 11,000 stocks and exchange-traded funds to clients. The exchange announced crypto futures for European customers in May and recently unveiled a tokenized equities platform, as well as acquired U.S. retail futures platform NinjaTrader.
Other platforms have also made moves aimed at expanding their respective traction – including Coinbase’s acquisition of Deribit and Robinhood’s major move to acquire Bitstamp.
