Kraken has integrated its over-the-counter (OTC) trading desk with ICE Chat, bringing its crypto spot and options liquidity into a messaging platform widely used by institutional traders.

The move places Kraken’s OTC services directly inside an existing communications tool for trading desks across major financial centers, aiming to streamline access to digital assets within established workflows.

ICE Chat Integration and Institutional Workflows

The integration allows more than 120,000 ICE Chat clients to connect directly with Kraken’s OTC desk via the same real-time messaging environment they already use to communicate across global markets. Traders can now contact Kraken’s team from within ICE Chat to discuss and execute OTC trades in crypto spot and options markets.

“ICE Chat was designed specifically to match the custom needs of traders, and with sophisticated functionality like AI-powered Smart Text Recognition, which turns texts into actionable data, firms using Kraken can communicate using always-on, instantaneous connectivity, in an easy-to-access, fully compliant environment.” commented ICE Head of Global Data Delivery Platforms Maurisa Baumann.

ICE Chat Features and Future Expansion Plans

ICE operates ICE Chat as part of its wider technology and data offering. The platform supports real-time, always-on connectivity between trading firms and includes tools that seek to align communications with market and regulatory expectations.

Kraken also indicated that it expects to expand the ICE Chat integration over time through additional initiatives, reflecting what it sees as the increasing integration of digital assets into established financial market workflows.

Kraken has lately been targeting established institutional marketplaces. Kraken-backed xStocks recently went live on 360X, giving Deutsche Börse Group clients access to tokenized versions of major equities on a regulated secondary trading venue, and marking the first significant product milestone under the partnership announced in December.

It allows 360X users to trade five xStocks instruments against stablecoins. It broadened institutional access to the xStocks standard and aiming to support further growth in trading volumes and unique holders.

Meanwhile, institutional marketplaces are eying prediction markets. Intercontinental Exchange recently launched the Polymarket Signals and Sentiment tool to deliver prediction-market data and analytics to professional and institutional investors.

Under the new offering, ICE will act as the exclusive distributor of Polymarket data for institutional capital markets. Polymarket runs one of the largest prediction markets, including contracts tied to financial and commodity themes, giving institutions structured access to this emerging data sourc