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U.S. Exchange Kraken Eyeing Expansion in European Market

source-logo  cryptoknowmics.com 25 August 2021 10:30, UTC

U.S.-based Kraken crypto exchange is planning on officially entering the European market by the end of the year. Currently, the platform operates in nearly 190 jurisdictions around the world and is valued at around $10 billion.

Kraken Eyes Growth in European Market in the Near Future

In an interview for the German news outlet Handelsblatt, Jesse Powell, CEO of Kraken said that the platform is in talks with regulators in several countries in Europe, seeking to obtain an EU license by the end of the year.

While the platform has not yet made the final decision regarding its potential European regulatory jurisdiction, the possible list of target markets includes Malta, Luxembourg, and the Republic of Ireland.

What's more, the company is also planning to go public via an IPO later this year. Rival platform Coinbase’s direct listing has paved the way for crypto platforms to go public despite the complex regulatory paperwork involved, according to Powell.

“We have to work through a huge checklist with 1000 tasks. For us, it’s good that Coinbase was the first to go public.”

Market Interest In NFT and DeFi

In addition to its Europe expansion, the company also intends to enter the NFT market by launching its own non-fungible token marketplace. Not only that, but decentralized finance (DeFi) is also under the bucket list for the crypto platform by allowing users to access the governance rights of DeFi token staking.

“We would like to have a marketplace through which people can trade NFTs. I believe we will see a number of applications for NFTs in the coming years.”

Launched in September 2013, Kraken is the fifth-largest cryptocurrency exchange in the world and second-largest in the U.S. with daily trading volumes amounting to $1.2 billion.

In the first half of the year, Kraken had a trading volume of more than $485 billion which is three times more than the volume reported last year, marking the company’s best performance in history to date.

cryptoknowmics.com